


COLORS

by Immerghensi



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - Weapon Dancer, M/M, Weapons, YouTube
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2020-09-26 16:30:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 45,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20392723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immerghensi/pseuds/Immerghensi
Summary: Mingi had too many ideas and San had too much energy, and that resulted in Seonghwa getting called in for damage control and Yeosang getting called for editing, neither of which lasted long before they realized they would beperfectweapons.Mingi is about to be living that y/n life.Weapon dancer AU





	1. PIRATE KING

Even though Song Mingi was a probable contestant for the ‘world’s softest human’ award, he still liked to dance like the embodiment of sin and fight like the protagonist of an action movie.

Fortunately, all of his lucky stars liked cooperating with one another, which landed him here, on a spring-loaded gym mat, blocking kicks from one spry Choi San while dodging large blades on chains.

_Stop, baby don’t stop _

_Uljijima baby don’t stop _

On the snap, one of the blades whips around over his head, forcing him to bend backwards, which only hurts him in the end because the other one comes not a second later to take out his feet. He and Yeosang jump up, but whereas the swordsman lands on his feet, Mingi has to land on his hands, forcing him to drop his six-foot pole.

It’s not like the knives will kill him- they’re actually more like rounded wooden dowels than anything- and he isn’t so worried about getting clocked in the face and having a to walk around the office with a giant lump on his noggin.

He doesn’t want to lose.

It’s a game they play, all four of them, where San gets a chance to practice his moves and he, Yeosang and Seonghwa get a chance to practice not dying a most unpleasant death. The songs he picks are usually fast paced, but every once in a while they’ll get thrown a slower song like this peppered with wildly creative and near-unavoidable moves and relies more on the members attempting to beat the life out of one another on the side than on San going after them.

There’s a reason why it’s called ‘Sabotoge’.

Seonghwa does an aerial which leads directly into his attack against Yeosang, but he ends up too close to hit with his fan axe and too far to kick, leaving himself open for a swing from the three-foot pole the other man carried. He runs away from the bad decision towards Mingi, ready to swing, but Mingi can see San eyeing them with a look that can only mean ‘danger’, and instinctively takes a diving roll over his spear past him. The sound of a damped _clack _reverberates behind him, followed by a groan, which means that it’s down to him and Greenie and the spinning man who’s nearing the end of his song and has to pick it up if he wants to win.

There’s a one-second breather followed by a loud ‘COMING BACK!’ and now Mingi’s doing all sorts of gymnastics that he didn’t sign up for when he started this gig. He can barely see Yeosang between the periods of being upside down and dive-dodging out of the way.

_Just get yourself _

_‘round it now yo_

_Estoy loco _

_Me dolce coco_

It’s not even like Mingi can afford to do anything besides avoid San with his ungodly forwards-backwards fast butterfly spin thing that he showed at their last practice after which he _laughed_ in their faces when he saw three jaws hanging slack. The movements are so quick, that’s why they practice like this so that _Mingi doesn’t get his feet knocked out from under him like he just did_.

He falls to the ground _oof ouch _on top of his spear, as luck would have it. Looking over, he can see San feverishly turning his head this way and that to keep track of where Yeosang is so he can try to hit him.

_Gonna gonna gonna gonna get that_

_Neoreul nochil ireon eopji gonna get that _

He does three double spins in a row, but this is where the music choice comes in handy- he’s forced to follow along to the beat. San can’t move any faster or slower to try to win because he’s limited by the conventions of his own game. His head ticks to the side, arms crossed out in front of him to send the knives back around his waist as the last beats play out.

_Stop, baby don’t stop _

“YES!!!!” Yeosang flails his arms to throw down his sword and shield, “Ramyeon, here I come!!!”

“Aish, but we had ramyeon last time!” The loose coils are starting to unwrap themselves from around San’s impossibly small waist, but he pushes them off like he’s trying to shimmy himself out of pants two sizes too small just so he can stomp over to him sooner. 

“Win the next round, then we’ll talk.”

“I’m waiting for the day I beat all three of you and get steak!” Seonghwa cries from his spot on the ground.

“Eat steak on your own time, I’ve been craving pork chasu this entire week!”

The post-battle banter is almost an integral part of their training regimen at this point, and while sometimes they can get rowdy, it’s always in good fun. San offers a hand to help Mingi, who’s still on the floor about four feet away from where he was mercilessly struck down.

“You’re ok?” he asks, and it’s easy to see that despite his aloofness and his playfulness, he cared so much, almost too much, about his members and their emotions.

“I’m fine, Sannie, honest.” He says. The likely bruise in his side pulses with a dull pain, but it isn’t any worse than that time he tried to do a fancy parkour move over that park bench and didn’t make it; that time that landed him in the hospital with a nurse who looked very concerned for their mental well-being and gifted him a gnarly scar on his forehead as a souvenir. 

The smaller man gives a quick dimpled smile, and like magic his mood has changed again, this time bouncing him along with pointed feet like a ballerina to where Seonghwa is making his spine sound like firecrackers and Yeosang has his legs split wide with his chin resting on his forearms on the ground.

“So where did you want to go tonight?”

“Glad you asked! You know that little place downtown on the hill-“

“Nooooooooooo!!!” San whines, putting on the maknae mask even though that title technically belonged to Mingi, “I can’t show my face in there, I kicked their shrine accidentally the last time, they’ll probably poison my food!”

And it’s like his anguish only serves to fuel Yeosang’s laughter, because now he’s _howling_. “You kicked their shrine!” He gasps between breaths.

“It’s not funny!!! I disrespected their respectable establishment and now I’m gonna have bad luck for the next five million years!!!”

The situation has evolved (devolved?) to San looking 110% distraught, Yeosang wiping away the tears (“You threw the apples and ran away!”) (“Shut _up_!!!”), and Seonghwa looking like a disappointed parent with his forehead in his hand deeply sighing.

Which means it’s a _perfect _time for their manager (manager? Is that what she is? They got her on recommendation because Google-searching 'accountant immediate hire please we're just kids we don't know how to do taxes' didn't turn up any meaningful results and she'd been helping them ever since) to come in.

“Hey Jihyo, don’t mind them. What’s up?” Mingi says, though it would work better if he could put his size to good use and stand in front of his teammates so she doesn’t have to see them.

“Just the usual, reaching out to other YouTubers, seeing if I can get my hands on any other companies for ads, crunching numbers.” Her hand flicks back and forth as through she were trying to swat a fly, “But we’ll go over that at the weekly meeting, I actually wanted to catch you guys before your dinner.”

“Yeah, _dinner_.” A devilish smile crosses Yeosang’s lips, for which San whacks him, for which he was sideways-tackled in return.

“We were just about to leave.” Seonghwa supplies like the designated adult they made him into.

“Do you think you could get it to go? I was scrolling through the comments section and thought it might be good to do a vlog tonight.” Her hands fret as she waits for them to say something, but instead inserts, “I’ve got it mostly planned, so you don’t have to worry about coming up with content.”

Mingi looks back at the others to find that they’re doing the same, silently asking one another if anyone has any pressing business they need to attend to or if they’re too tired and want to leave it until tomorrow, but Seonghwa shrugs and San nods a few times in return, which is a good sign.

Yeosang puts a shy hand up, “It won’t be too late when we get back?”

“Not if we order ahead.” It’s not like they aren’t used to multitasking- one member can take of that while the rest of them put away their weapons and clean the field. Mingi rolls over onto his stomach to stretch out his back- it’s the least he can do if they’re being hurried. “Just find the number and someone will call.”

“You mean ‘find the number and then throw the phone at Seonghwa’?” Seonghwa deadpans.

“Thanks dad!!!” San cuddles up to him, and he looks like he's in turmoil.

Jihyo rolls her eyes but thanks them, telling them to meet her in the backroom where the couches and the big TV are, don’t take too long. Mingi can only nod and give an apologetic smile as Yeosang throws the phone, as predicted, into Seonghwa’s hands, in time with the soundtrack of San’s dolphin laugh.

_And they said **he** was the crazy one…. _

**

San aggressively fist pumps in the car when Mingi comes back with two big bags of Japanese take out, but quickly changes to a serious stance to block the incoming fortune cookies being lobbed at him. Even when they were silly, the serious training always lurked in the back of their minds, as shown by Yeosang almost getting run over by a bunch of high school kids playing around on the sidewalk and proceeding to come within a millimeter of ending one kid’s life with a block/palm strike combination. Seonghwa ushers them as fast as possible back into the safety of the white warehouse they called their field of play, through the doors in back to where the TV is on and waiting for them. There’s a small piece of paper covering the top left corner of the screen so they can’t see the name of whatever video she’s about to play.

“We have the goods!” The bags land on the coffee table with an unceremonious rustle since his teammates are jerks and ran away before he could ask for help. Plates and plastic utensils are thrown on beside them just so they can get to their meals faster. As much as they complained about eating ramyeon again, they were hungry kids, and hungry kids tended not to care about what was on their plate so much as that there was _something_ on their plate. San has an entire mountain of seafood and noodles in front of him, the rest of the members not too far behind when they remember that oh yeah, this is going on our channel, we need to do the introduction.

“Are you guys ready?” Jihyo asks, one hand on the GoPro, one hand holding onto her own plate of food.

“Ready!”

“Ok, topic is ‘reviewing your last video’.” She says, “3…2…1…”

The little click of a button on the camera brings them all to attention, Seonghwa calling out, “Hello, lovely Rainbows, welcome back to our channel! For all you new people, nice to meet you, I’m Red.”

In time with his introduction, he pulls at the bandana around his neck with his pointer finger. Beside him, San waves with both marigold sweater paws, “I’m Yellow.”

Yeosang scoots in closer and put his emerald cap on backwards, “I’m Green.”

All three of them look at Mingi, who leans forward to show off the loose Chelsea F.C jersey one of their fans gifted to him. “I’m Blue.”

“And we are COLORS!” Seonghwa says, slightly out of breath, but the others are doing their not-quite-enthusiastic but still loud cheering, so he doubts anyone notices. “Today we’re going to be reviewing our latest video.”

“And eating dinner.” San interjects.

“Yes, of course. Dinner. Because have our priorities in check.” With a nod to Jihyo, hits the big ‘Play’ button on the TV screen appears and disappears.

And an ad promptly takes its place.

Disappointed ‘Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh….’s overtake the room with their anticipation’s false start.

_We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two _

The ad ends after what feels like an agonizing 15 seconds, and the screen goes dark. Panning down, they can see an open parking lot at an angle, but then the camera goes horizontal and Mingi walks out. Their logo appears in the center of the screen and fades away. Yeosang has a surprisingly strong death grip on Mingi’s shoulder. The three tails on the back of the blue cinched robe kick up as his armored boots carry him towards battle.

_Clip_

_…_

_Clop_

_…_

_…_

_Clip _

_…_

_…_

_…_

_Clop_

On his next step, a drum beat kicks in, and the camera angle swings out to show Yeosang with his new, decorative shield on the other side of the parking lot. The beat starts to stutter with the impending drop, and now they’re jogging towards one another, faster and faster. There’s a growl, and Mingi jumps in time to bring down his ribbon spear in time with the first lines.

_Beam me up, beam me up_

_Urin yodongchideut chumchweo everyday _

On the beats, his spear hits Yeosang’s shield, and then it’s his turn to swipe after Mingi with his sword and push him further into the parking garage. It’s a rap part now; much faster. He spins out of the way and does a flip off of one of the beams, launching into a set of jabs right away. He’s met with a shield blocking at each point. The two dance around each other, and Seonghwa makes a loud ‘wow’ sound from the other side of the table around his mouthful of udon. Mingi in the video does a leg sweep followed by a figure 8-move, and Mingi at the table tries to get shumai into his mouth with no success.

The beat shifts, and Mingi holds his breath.

On screen, a blur of yellow hops over the mass of blue.

_Eodideunji we can go_

San does one forward butterfly followed by a reverse one to stop Seonghwa, who’s running in behind him.

_Ireon mwodeun mwodeun dwae _

_uril ttaraomyeon dwae _

_soneul nopge deuro_

Seonghwa has effectively taken Yeosang's place at this point. He spins his axe around his back while San buys himself time to collect his knives by swinging only one overhead.

_Step 1, 2, 3, and 1, 2, 3_

_Let’s go _

The camera pans out.

_Will you be my friend? _

There’s a heavy beat drop, and Mingi forgoes his food in favor of body rolling because yeah, he chose this song, what about it? This new group, Ateez, is fantastic and they’ve only just begun.

_MmmmmoooooOOOAAAAAAOOOOOooohhhhh_

Deep brass notes blare on the speakers, and San does eight pirouettes with his knives fully swinging, moving himself into and then straight out of the frame. All of them to drop, but since he and Mingi are on the same ‘team’ for this round, Mingi’s able to bounce down and back up, which gives him an advantage when he starts going after Yeosang again. They battle with strength, pushing against one another, while in the background San and Seonghwa are moving at a speed just short of sprinting. The beat drops again, this time with Mingi ducking and San jumping over his back so they can switch opponents.

The beat drops again, and this time there’s a blindingly fast rap verse courtesy of Kim Hongjoong. The camera is on the figures in green and yellow, but based on the way it was shot they can tell that there’s another battle going on behind them. At the table, eatin has resumed with only a few indignant yells.

The camera does a 180 to show Red and Blue as fighters, and the Red and Blue at the table point to say ‘hey that’s me!!’.

_Time we gon’ get it _

_Takin’ our time, we gon’ get it_

There’s laughter and more eating, and Mingi breathes out a sigh of relief. The hot spotlight of self-consciousness still shines on him, but he feels better about picking a kpop song now that the others seem to be into it. Not that they had anything against it- they were… confused.

_Ije tacceul ollyeora _

_Eodeun mameul geodeora _

_Eodideunji we can go _

Usually they danced to rock or electronic, but this was a new genre, one that came with a world they weren’t well-versed in. So when Mingi played the song, they had shrugged and said ‘sure, why not’, but they weren’t as enthusiastic as when Seonghwa had chosen [Domino](https://youtu.be/iJVIDch1p4E) by Van Damsel or Yeosang had chosen the story-centric [Take Me Home](https://youtu.be/wvzfOyW0ZMo)by Cash Cash.

_Challanan geugoseuro_

_Say 1, 2, 3 and 1, 2, 3 let’s go _

“WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?” San yells at full volume, effectively deafening everyone at the table, and on screen he’s thrown by Mingi into Seonghwa, who is on the unfortunate receiving end of a flying scissor takedown. They burst out into laughter while the rest of the video plays out. Eventually Seonghwa manages to throw San back and he lands on one knee. Mingi and Yeosang whack each other hard enough to both retreat, and then it’s time for the dramatic bridge where they all stand there and wait for the camera to pan past them all. When they originally recorded it, this segment had lasted maybe two seconds.

_We can make everything together_

In the last segment, the camera circles around them continuously as members flip over and past one another. At one point, Yeosang darts in front of Mingi to block a hit for Seonghwa, and San does a quick one-two spin around them so he has a clear shot over their shoulders when throwing his knife. They switch partners again, one last time before the song ends. Seonghwa rushes in towards San, nearly knocking Mingi off course, Yeosang coming back in with a Sparta-style kick. The swing of his sword is blocked by the ribbon spear held diagonally along his back. This is it.

_We can go_

_We can go _

_We can go_

_We can go!_

The video ends with all four of them standing in a circle (a square???), the camera twisting away from them, and then cuts out. Their logo flashes again and the first few seconds of their upcoming video (Yeosang’s still editing it) plays muted.

“Aaaaah~ wow!” Is all Mingi gets to say before San has the bright idea to tackle Yeosang with love, which results in Seonghwa flopping on him and Mingi flopping on top of all of them, and thank goodness Yeosang was so bendy otherwise he would have snapped in half. (Ah yes, the wonders of cheerleading…).

“You did so well, Sangie-yah!”

“Look at our little genius!”

“Yah! Leave me alone and watch the video!!!” he yells back.

Yeosang points ahead at the screen, which Mingi didn’t even notice had already cycled through its loading bar to show—oh woah, what? The familiar Ateez logo with the two bars, one above and one below, fades in over the black screen and fades out again. They must have come out with a new song, one that the fans have been recommending, or have been doing covers of. Or maybe they’re doing a new choreo that he can learn and modify, which would be great since all their songs are certified bops—

“Four makes one team! Annyeonghaseyo, Ateezibnida!” Their leader, Kim Hongjoong, fearsome rapper and international representative of adorable, says. The members wave behind him. “Today we’re going to be watching some fan covers.”

Mingi’s mind races. Fan covers. They’re watching fan covers. They just did a fan cover.

They just watched their own fan cover for the first time.

_Oh my god this can’t be happening!_

The first one comes up, and it’s a clean-looking studio doing a cover of the chorus for ‘Illusion’, a number of different age and experience groups putting their own spin on the dance. A few more are kids that are at their own homes or in the middle of deserted-looking streets doing the dances for ‘Pirate King’, ‘Hala Hala’, and ‘Wave’, and there are a few ‘Aurora’s and ‘Treasure’s thrown in, and Mingi promises not to be mad if they don’t actually show their clip and this is leading up to a bigger but ultimately different thing, but he would like to hope (pray) that the reason they’re being show this is because they’re in it.

On screen, Wooyoung, all-around talented performer and possesser of inhuman duality, makes a loud screaming noise as one of the groups does a take on that one clip that Atiny won’t let each other forget- the one from that time they yelled ‘bad bitch Puerto Rican’ and everyone died. The noise startles Seonghwa, who accidentally bumps the table behind him and shakes the wireless mouse.

The video is a total of about 12 mintues long, and 5 of them are left. That’s enough time to play their video, right? Or at least some of it? The members on screen are applauding the kids from the last video, but the screen is dark.

It’s gotta be his group, right?

_Come on, please, please, please….._

The screen pans down to an open parking lot, and Mingi lets out a banshee scream when their logo appears, and on screen, Wooyoung also screams ‘COLORS’ which only intensifies Mingi’s screaming. They’re in full swing of it now with Yeosang chasing Mingi out of the frame, then back into it, then out of it so San has enough space to not kill them.

On screen, he can see the members (_oh my god the members are watching his members perform asdfghjkl someone save his poor, weak heart_) ooh-ing and aah-ing as Seonghwa jumps in, completing the picture.

_Say 1, 2, 3 and 1, 2, 3_

_Let’s go _

“WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?!” All eight of them shout. The room devolves into chaos. San is doing aggressive body rolls. Yeosang is doing a slow milly rock. Seonghwa is doing the ‘mmmmooooaaaaoooh’ with his vocal chords turned up to 11. Mingi’s soul has left the mortal realm.

Jongho, resident Voice of Heaven and vanquisher of all fruits, cheers from his seat squished between Hongjoong and Wooyoung. The battle is in full swing, literally, with San doing wide arc to give Mingi some space away from Seonghwa while jumping out of reach of the green sword.

Wooyoung does a weird little back and forth motion, his fingers wiggling past each other in a familiar patten and _OH MY GOD--- _“San, did you just see that?!?! He-!!! He knows your part!”

“Shut _up_!!!!” he growls back, but the deepening red on his cheeks has already betrayed him.

The beat winds down, but only for a second.

Hongjoong sings along with his rap, eyes unblinking, taking in all of the action going on on-screen. Mingi remembers this part- he and Seonghwa were in back doing Typical Pole Weapon Things, which mainly meant doing fancy moves which didn’t take up too much energy. (In the back of his mind he can hear San’s annoying voice yell ‘pole dancer!’ and some obnoxious laughter, and he forces himself to forget about it so he can enjoy the fact that his idols are watching them and look like they’re generally enjoying their performance.) When they get to the end of his rap, Jeong Yunho comes on for his deep-toned rap verse, and Mingi feels himself entering a new astral plane at the sight of the probable love of his life and choreography gift from God singing along and getting excited when Mingi’s spear rings against Seonghwa’s and he does a low growl.

“Oh my god, are those real?!”

“Yup.” All four Colors answer from their side of the screen, then look at one another and laugh at the thought of how much time they had to have spent to be that in sync. Their video ends and the little play box at the bottom goes away, but some of the members start mimicking the motions that they were doing on screen, and Hongjoong, bless all 5’7 of him, rewinds to Mingi’s part at the beginning and pauses again after the click-clack from his shoes.

“This is such a cool shot, ugh, like look at that!” His hand disappears as it inches closer and closer to the screen, probably to point out how cool Yeosang looks in the distance.

Mingi falls back against the couch that none of them are sitting on so he can cover his eyes. Now that he knows this video exists, he’s 1000% sure he’s going to be watching it all night, 99% sure he’ll overanalyze everything while he’s at it, who knows. This whole ‘COLORS Reacting to ATEEZ reacting to COLORS’ video won’t be up until at least tomorrow, which means he has time to lurk around in the comments section before they have to put on their professional caps and be courteous YouTubers. Across the table, Seonghwa is peeking through his fingers to watch the members talk about the parts they like, and his covers his eyes completely when they skip ahead to one of the frames where the pause button did him dirty.

“Oh god no, press play or something!” He whines. San throws a fortune cookie at him, and the room erupts in screams of surprise, Yeosang and eventually Mingi getting roped into the fray. Seonghwa goes to flick the boy in yellow next to him, but San does a down-up-down forearm block and Mingi bellows ‘WOAH!’ in return.

“Thank you guys for sending us your covers! We love hearing from Atiny.” The leader on the screen says.

_Oh nonono don’t go yet_…. Mingi’s brain cries. He has to physically stop himself from pouting- that wouldn’t be a good look for him or his team.

“We’ll see you next time!” Yunho waves with both hands. He’s joined by a ‘We love you’ from Jongho and a flurry of finger hearts and flying kisses from Wooyoung, and the video ends. Jihyo minimizes the window and he can see that this isn’t a joke, this really went onto Ateez’s official channel, and Mingi’s heart does a Thing.

“Ah~ wow!”

He feels like he’s floating on cloud nine. Is his face red? It probably is. Yeosang is doing that thing where he cups his cheeks with both hands and looks down because he’s shy.

“—special thanks to Ateez for watching our video!” Seonghwa covers like the least-worst disaster he is, “We appreciate it and hope you enjoyed!”

The members clap even though none of them have a clue what their unofficial leader just said.

“And thank you to our lovely Rainbows for your support!” Oh cool, they’re back on their normal dialogue for each of their video closings. That means---

“If you have any song suggestions, leave them in the comments section below!” Yeosang points down to where the all the mumbo-jumbo stuff in the description box will go once he’s ready to upload. “At the end of the voting period, YOU GUYS get to choose what song we do next.”

Mingi scoots himself forward. “If you like our videos and want to see more content like this, go ahead and click the ‘like’ button, and if you really like us, then why don’t you hit the ‘subscribe’ button while you’re at it?”

“Thanks for watching, we’ll see you next time!!!” They wave together, eyes directed at the camera but unfocused so they can see Jihyo. She counts down 3, 2, 1 and the camera’s off.


	2. WAVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a mess. They're a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait y'all, I had to wrap up my MX longfic and then failed an exam. Not sure where this story is going, but hey- that's half the fun!

Mingi had too many ideas, and San had too much energy, and that’s probably why they worked so well together both on and off the field.

“Mingi-yah! It crashed again!” San chimes as though that statement made him the most valuable human on the planet and not the most atrocious of pains in Mingi’s ass. He pulls himself away from the mass-discussion going on between the other members of the maintenance crew. _Deep breaths, deep breaths, don't kill him, you're **friends**_**, **_you generally **like** each other--_

“I was working on that thing, you know- the one with the big lights in the ceiling that go _nyyeeeiiiiiieeeerrrrr_ as they fall before that explosion, and then a loading bar popped up so I let it run, but _then-_“ San’s explanation feels like the verbal equivalent of a cheese rolling contest. He was always working on five million projects at once because he needed to be doing something with his hands at all times, and this job was the biggest and most expensive game of arts and crafts. Mingi starts waving his hands to call him off.

“Ok, ok, _ok_ I got it. Leave it with me and I’ll figure something out.”

“Thanks! You’re the best!” San blows him a kiss, and Mingi flails one long leg in a half-hearted attempt to kick his ass. Even though he misses, it’s fine. He'll get his revenge later It’s Friday night, and that means they’ll be playing Sabatoge…

**

Mingi pulls on his boots over the cuff of his cream-white trousers. The new costumes had taken some time to tailor, but he likes this one way more than his old one. It suits him better, if he does dare say so himself- the folded pleats and the jacket hugging his waist juxtapose his slender figure against his now-bulbous spear.

“Recording tonight?” Jihyo’s brows furrow, one finger pointing towards the ornate yellow robe covering one of San’s shoulders. It loops around him like a sash cinched at the waist, then drapes down to his knees. He won’t be able to do many fancy flips, but he’ll get extra points with Rainbows for style (and for showing skin- they seem to go nuts over that!). San strategically slaps some invisible tape onto himself so that when he moves, he doesn’t end up completely shirtless.

“Yeah, we had to move up a day, remember?” Yeosang says. Seonghwa is helping him wrassle his outfit on; a toga-like robe with arrow-shaped armor chestplate. His arm is sort of dangling over his head with Seonghwa muttering to himself about the tie not holding.

“Ah, right, right.” Jihyo gives them a wave over her shoulder. “I’ll head upstairs to get everything ready.”

With help from San and Mingi, they manage to get the plates strapped on without incident and then work on getting Seonghwa into his own well-fitting white coat heavily splattered with red paint. The blue, red, and green lights in the ceiling above turn on as they take up their respective spots- one member on each side of the play field without a weapon. San stands on his own side with his dowels at the ready. From up above, there’s a countdown _3 2 1_ and the music starts playing.

He hears the first two notes of a high electric warble and already knows it’s ‘Wave’. Mingi runs over to where his spears are lined up against the wall, scanning each one. He picks out one of the heavier blades that will be better against the members as opposed to one of the lighter ones better suited for a dodging San. On the adjacent wall, Seonghwa seems to have the same idea and forgoes the hollow sun fan in favor of the heavy scythe hook. The speakers above them play in hollow, tropical beats.

Mingi jumps back into the field of play, meeting Yeosang and his green two-handed sword first, followed by Seonghwa’s hook. San is still on the side of the field, waiting to jump into play so he can match the lyrics. The others steel themselves for his inevitable first swing, which, by his positions, will be a wide sweeping arc. Yellow shakes out his legs, takes a deep breath, and---

Goes nowhere.

He’s literally just standing there, what the fuck.

_Yeogi jigeum urin ocean blue _

San gives a devilish grin and unbuckles the thick yellow belt. The cords and dowels drop to the floor with a loud rattle, and Jihyo is already there with a new belt which he takes, cackling.

“WHAT?!” Mingi yells before he can think of a more intelligent thing to say.

“WAIT A MINUTE! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Yeosang moans back.

_Hamkke hagoisseo yeojani _

He checks over the faux blades, holding two in each hand to get a feel for them, and Mingi’s eyes widen in shock. San pulls out extra cord to keep coiled in his palm, meaning the first move is going to be a throw. A throw in a four-knife game. They’re screwed.

_Eodiro galjin moreujiman_

“Coming back!”

San bounces the knives against the floor with the beat, grabbing them on the spin. He throws them left-right, left-right in time with-

_Gunbae! Gunbae!_

The cycles of knives are matched via swinging them slowly over his head. Mingi is going to kill San, only if Yeosang doesn’t kill him first. The swordsman does a slide tackle across the play field under one of the cords so he can launch straight into Mingi.

_I sungan tteugeun taeyam araeseo_

Mingi sprints head on to dive-roll over him, avoiding the fight completely. He narrowly avoids making contact with a dowel.

_Go away! Go away!_

It leaves Yeosang open for Seonghwa to come in with a flying kick, which is incredibly inconvenient since San is doing large, sweeping arcs with one hand and throwing with the other.

_Saenggaekhae, saenggakhae, saenggakhae_

Another diagonal sweep separates the two and Mingi lashes out with a swing behind his back, then whips around to knock Seonghwa off balance. They’re nearing the edge of the ring. If he can land a few more blows, Mingi will have a shot at eliminating him. The spear he chose is heavy though, and he’s getting tired from lugging it when he has to skirt out of the way.

_Jeogi padareul neomu, just going on_

Seonghwa heaves back, forcing Mingi to retreat half a step, and that’s all he needs to see before twirling his hook around to swing at him. He unleashes a flurry of strikes meant to disorient him, and it takes all the skill and experience he has to not be knocked off course. 

_Meori hanbeon ssoleo neomgigo wichyeo_

San’s arcs slow down until the knives spin just above the ground. He’s catching his breath right before the chorus, and Mingi and Seonghwa split apart to prepare. In the space between the seconds, San sends a ripple down all the lines and catches the four dowels.

_Hakuna matata ya!_

All of the members dive onto the floor to take cover while the blades criss-cross in a frenzy overhead.

_Deodeodeo millyeo wado! _

_Hakuna matata! _

_Deodeodeo millyeo wado!_

While the others army-crawl away, Mingi has to army crawl towards the chaos to retrieve his ribbon spear where it slipped out of his hands.

_Jeogi padoreul neomeo_

The air stills. Off to the side, Yoesang spins his sword around in preparation. 

_Mijimijiwa seomeul cheoja follow us_

_Mississippigan halyureul geonneo where we go? _

There are two whole rap verses here. Mingi knows there are because when it first came out he had it on repeat, but he can’t hear Yunho's voice while he’s alternating which hand he’s holding his spear in. Who's bright idea was it to make it this heavy??? This was a bad choice- San knew what they would pick and arranged his dance against it, the little devil.

_Jeogi padareul neomeo, just going on_

_Jjineun taeyangeul hyanghae gal ttae_

_Meomchugo shipeun sungani wado _

_Meori hanbeon sseureo neomgigo ichyeo_

"Coming back!" 

_Hakuna Matata ya!_

San's picked a different pattern this time, something to keep the members on their toes. He's spinning and jumping so fast, it's a wonder how he doesn't get dizzy. The members are all on the floor again trying to see when a low swing will come so they can roll out of the way. Mingi is the first to first to figure out the intimidating swirling pattern of the four ropes and uses the knowledge to run after Yeosang, sweeping him up and throwing him out of the ring. He rolls around for a moment and accepts his fate with a quiet ‘awww man….’, but now that there are two of them and San left, the intensity doubles. Seonghwa jumps over a low swing then ducks under a high one to swing his hook out. It catches him around the back, giving him the perfect tool to push him towards the edge. Mingi goes for his legs, forcing him to retreat.

_Nega itneun geose_

_Nado seo isseulge_

They're at a standstill, circling around each other. It's a gamble- either run and hope San gets him or fight and risk being hit from behind. The butterfly spins are slow enough to give San a chance to catch his breath. His head nods in time with the beat, counting.

_Urin geu wieseo geonikkan!_

“Coming back!”

_We’re just going up!_

San picks up the cords and in one forceful spin and they come flying back out at their full length. They go over his head, then down so he can hop over them, then back up again in a scissor pattern. Mingi’s in full pole-vaulter mode using his weapon to give himself a leg up above the swings that eliminate Seonghwa from the match. Mingi breaths a very, _very_ short sigh of relief and runs out of range of the knives.

_Geokjeonghajima (geokjeonghajima)_

_Geokjeonghajima_

_Jeogi padoreul neomeo_

It's a musical outro, one that forces the knife thrower to slow his pace down. He won't have another chance to hit Mingi unless Mingi is careless, which he isn't. The song finally, _finally _ends with a breathless San holding his arms above his head as he waits for the cords to circle around his waist again. All the lights come on. Mingi throws down his spear and tips back his head to let out a war cry.

“HALAL HERE I COME!!!”

There isn't an outcry like last time, but they would come with a dish in mind that they were craving, and it was a matter of both their stomachs and their prides each Friday night. Seonghwa rests his hook back on the wall and stomps over like a petulant child.

“I was so close!!!”

Yeosang sits down on the play field do stretch. “Oh shush, you! Let’s get dinner.”

Some grumbling from San, a groan from Mingi, and they get to work winding down for the day. Back and forth, they work out the kinks in their muscles. He’ll sleep well tonight- he always does when they do an official cover or a Sabatoge. It’s been a week since their last post, three since that unbelievable thing with Ateez, so their followers are expecting a new upload soon. Yeosang doesn’t have to do much to get it ready for posting- just piece together the different camera views. Maybe he’ll check the comments, that’s always fun.

Up above them, the speakers crinkle to life and the sound of ‘Valkyrie’s first verse fills the room. It’s probably just so Jihyo can watch Mingi make a fool out of himself, but Mingi doesn’t call himself the seventh member of Oneus for nothing. He immediately jumps up and raises one hand, shuffling his feet.

“Eodu wasseon nae salme!"

Even though he can’t see them, he’s 110% sure his members are rolling their eyes. Mingi pouts when the music stops, but it’s probably for the best. If she played any more, he’d never finish stretching. Jihyo comes out from the side walkway into the room. “Evening, y’all. You have lessons.”

Ugh, nighttime lessons were the worst. It was already going on 8, and they were all more than ready to head home. “What time?”

“Like… now. This is just a consultation, don’t worry.”

“All of us?”

“They weren’t sure who to pick.”

San crosses his arms in front of him, trying to cover himself a little. “I’ll have to get a shirt before we start. You can send them in. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Stay for a second, would you? I have one more note…” Her last words drag on as she flips through a few pages on her clipboard, but now she’s motioning off to the back. All of the members turn their heads un unison at the four unfairly gorgeous young men walking into the warehouse, all of whom Mingi recognizes, and _oh god oh god oh god_ his heart is pounding so loudly that he feels like he’s going to combust.

“NO, JIHYO—” Mingi feels one of his knees give out for a second. They're even more stunning in person, how is that even possible, and he can only hope that he doesn't have a dumb, starstruck look on his face. San is ejecting himself from the scene so he can not be shirtless, or maybe so he can _not_ do this at all. The four of them assemble next to the one and only Kim Hongjoong in a neat line. 

“Hi, nice to meet you! We’re Ateez!”

Yeosang is blushing a pretty pink and Seonghwa has been partially deafened, still trying to figure out where in space and time he is. They’re a mess. This is a mess.

“The pleasure is ours.” He finally replies, “We’re COLORS.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm thinking about pairs- def gonna do YunGi and WooSan. Should I do SeongSang too?
> 
> Will go back and proofread at some point


	3. VALKYRIE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ateez meet the COLORS, and Yunho is impressed and mildly intimidated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much C2 from the other points of view. C4 will be more action and planning.

“So…. Who wants to check it out first?” Yunho offers to break the silence. The drive over had been the same as any night- Wooyong getting finagled into a completely hypothetical argument via Jongho, Hongjoong losing the battle against sleep deprivation, and Yunho making conversation with the manager and the kind man driving them to… wherever it was they were going. All they were told was that they’d be visiting that group that did the cover for Pirate King, the ones with the weapons, and that they needed to get moving so they could be at the warehouse in time.

It doesn’t look like much. (If he were honest, it looked like the setting of some b-rate Blumhouse production, but it’s not like he’ll ever say that out loud.) There are no other people as far as the eye can see. If anything were to happen, it would probably take at least 20 minutes to get back to that tiny town they skirted around earlier. But at least the trees around them help keep the heat in while they wait outside.

“Yes? Yes, we’re in the lot by the road. Great, we’ll see you in a moment.” _Click_. The manager scrolls through his phone waiting for the contact to come out. The late summer sun is only starting to fade now and the faint beat of a hollow drum plays from the other side of the wall. There’s yelling inside, something about ‘not being fair’, and side door swings open. A young woman- she can’t be more than five years their senior- peers out of it quickly grabs hold of the rusting handle before it can slam into the wall.

“Ah, perfect, just in time! They’re in the middle of a match right now. They don’t know you’re here- I wanted to keep you guys a surprise.” She props the door open for them, beckoning the group to come inside, quick, don’t make a sound.

They file inside without being noticed; a feat not considered possible by most Atiny. Yunho gets a glimpse through the doorway just as four blurs fly past and the speakers overhead yell _Gunbae! Gunbae! _and oh, woah, that’s their song! Huh, pretty cool. He has half a thought to break out into the choreo but decides against it. Up, up, up what feels like an infinite set of winding stairs the woman (she has a name, she said it earlier) leads them to what must be the control room, and peering out the large window, he can see the green, blue, and red members darting across the marked out space while the yellow one swings those ropes he saw earlier.

_Badareul hyaenghae trip_

_Da deonjyeobeoryreo drink_

_I sunganuel jeulgyeo_

_I know y’all feelin’ me_

“You can put your things down over here. They’ll be done in….” she tilts onto one foot, extending her body completely to check the song progression on the computer, “another minute and a half or so. I’m thinking of leaving the cameras on while bringing you all down there. I’ll go out there and make sure they don’t run off too early, say a thing or two, and then bring you all in for a… er, not so formal introduction. How do you feel about that?”

The members looks at each other, checking if anyone had a problem with that.

“Sounds like fun.” Hongjoong answers. Down below, the yellow one seems to have slowed down, probably to prepare for the next chorus. If it was anything like what he’d just seen, the spinner would need to conserve all the energy he could.

_Meori hanbeon sseureo neomgigo ichyeo_

“Coming back!”

_Hakuna matata ya! _

“So!” Her hands clasp together in a loud, excited _pop_. “I want to thank all of you for meeting here so late. You’re probably tired. I appreciate the efforts. Before you go down there, the gold robe plus ropes is San, red and white trenchcoat plus hook is Seonghwa, green shirt and armor plus big sword is Yeosang, and blue Victorian coat plus spear is Mingi. You’ll have a chance to get to them in a bit.”

Yunho looks out the window knowing that there’s zero chance he’ll remember their actual names and will most likely resort to calling them by their colors. As least their faces are distinct enough.

_Nega itneun geose_

_Nado seo issuelge_

The green one has been removed from the ring, but the red and blue are having some sort of a stare down during the bridge. When the last verse starts, the cords go flying out farther than they had before, causing the other two Colors reflexively duck then jump immediately after. They don’t seem to be going after one another anymore, instead focusing on not getting hit by Yellow. Blue hops over a stomach-level rope using his weapon to boost him, and it’s enough to make him the last other runner on the field. The guitar plays out its last notes, then it’s over.

“Woah….” Is all that Jongho manages to say, and it’s more than the others can because they’re still speechless- the fact that he can still put together words while trying to process what in the world those people made their song into is a feat in and of itself.

Blue lets out an unintelligible scream which causes Yunho to jump, but he plays it cool and pretends like that totally didn’t just happen.

“And we’re gonna work with them….” He says to the room.

“A lot of people think they’re pretentious or trigger-happy nut cases because of what they see on screen, but they’re actually a nice group of kids.” After a second, she adds, “Still nut cases though.”

The lights spanning the entirety of the warehouse floor bathe the space in a bright white light, and they look like normal kids casually going to put away their sports equipment, except here, the equipment was weaponry. The members sit down together to stretch, scattered on the white area they were just playing in. Red makes soundless conversation with Green while Blue focuses on the foot he’s reaching towards to stretch his hamstring.

“I’m so excited. At least one of them is going to kill me and I’m gonna be totally ok with that.”

Down below, the yellow one, San, does something to the blue one, Mingi, and in a flash, he’s letting out a kick in what has to be the most perfect form if Yunho’s ever seen one.

“He looks like he’ll rip my face off if I say hello…”

“Which one? Mingi? He’s completely harmless, like a big, overgrown puppy. He’s just focused, that’s all.” Her hands fly over the keyboard, icons changing in the Spotify search bar as she typed. “Watch _this_.”

Staccato electric guitar plucks trickle through the overhead speakers; a melody Yunho recognizes from when they were on Weekly Idol with Oneus.

Blue jumps up from his spot.

“I love this song!!!” he yells at his members, who must be used to the sight of him dropping everything to step perfectly in time with the choreography. He even sings along at full volume, Jesus, how strong was his cardio? True, he battled full-force with a ribbon spear, and that probably took exorbitant amounts of energy, but _still_.

Yunho is a dancer by nature.

But this?

This is on a different level.

All of his movements are so crisp and controlled. He doesn’t seem to bat an eye as he goes through all of the motions perfectly, and there’s this huge, silly grin on his face that makes it look like he’s not even trying, probably because he isn’t. This sort of expression is second nature to him.

Jihyo tuns off the music after only the first chorus, much to his dismay. (Yunho doesn’t doubt that he could do the Matrix, but he still wanted to see it.) The overhead lights flash all four colors.

“Are you guys ready?” She waits for a nod from each one. “Good. Time to meet the COLORS.”

Jihyo grabs a clipboard and shove some paper under the metal clip. She does what Yunho can only assume is a quick double check to make sure she has everything. From his position in the back, he can see Wooyoung death-gripping Hongjoong’s arm.

“Oh my god, hyung, this is so cool! I can’t believe-“

“Wooyoung, I know you think he’s the most beautiful boy in the world, but I need you to not act like a gay disaster for 6 ½ minutes. Can you do that?” Hongjoong hisses. They’re in the doorway- if they carry the conversation beyond there, there’s a chance that the COLORS will hear it and then the surprise will be ruined.

“_Woah woah woah_!” He whines, indignant, “I do not-“

“So you’re telling me you _don’t_ think he’s the most beautiful boy in the world?” He challenges, and Wooyoung looks so thoroughly offended that Hongjoong almost feels bad about how hard it will be for the other man not to projectile word vomit all over the knife thrower.

“How could you even suggest that?”

Wooyoung panics all the way back down the stairs up until they reach bottom, after which he only internally panics. Then he makes the fatal mistake of looking out to where the Colors are standing in all their costumed glory and they’re so much more _real_ when there isn’t the filter or a six-inch screen or a plate of glass between them that his panic intensifies. Jongho whacks him in the shoulder lightly enough to not elicit a yell, but hard enough to tell him that there are more coming if he doesn’t calm down.

“Wait until I give the signal.” Jihyo whispers.

Yunho opens his mouth to ask what signal they should be looking for, but she’s already out on the field and his kneejerk reaction is to chomp on his tongue to keep himself quiet. She approaches them looking carefree. Since they have no idea what’s about to happen, they don’t even notice anything different.

“Evening, y’all.” Jihyo strides out with the first few pages of her clipboard already flipped over. “You’ve got lessons today.”

“What time?” Red peered at her over his watch.

“Like… now.” The members look at one another, ready to jump into action for whatever a 'lesson' involved, but she continues, “This is just a consultation, don’t worry.”

“All of us?” Yellow follows. His eyes narrow into a suspicious glare, and oh boy, did he know that they were there? Yunho looks at Jongho who looks at Hongjoong who puts his hand on his shoulder to tell him not to make a sound.

“They weren’t sure which to pick.”

Yellow processes the words, shrugs, and accepts it with an ‘eh, what the heck’, and Yunho visibly deflates. Phew. Bullet dodged.

“I’ll have to get a shirt before we start. You can send them in. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Stay for a second, would you? I have one more note…” Her last words drag on as she flips through a few pages on her clipboard, but now she’s motioning off to the members to come out.

“That’s us. Let’s go.” Hongjoong steps ahead of them, leading them like he’s always done. When he dares to look up, Yunho is met with a variety of expressions ranging from ‘mortified’ to ‘short-circuited’.

“NO, JIHYO-“ Blue’s jaw is on the floor- there's a good chance he knows who they are. Green has his hand over his mouth in a polite containment.

“I WILL BE RIGHT BACK.” Wooyoung’s bubbling energy seems to have died down now that the one in yellow is sprinting away with his robe-cape flowing behind him. They can see the faint impression where tape is holding up the fabric on the exposed side of his chest. It’s probably a good thing that he won’t be nearly half naked the first time they meet. Wooyoung would probably have a nosebleed, and he doubts that’s the first impression the other man wanted to make.

“Hi, nice to meet you!” Hongjoong, ever the responsible adult, says, “We’re Ateez!”

“The pleasure is ours. We’re COLORS.” Red covers. Blue is still on the ground avoiding all eye contact with everyone. (From where Yunho’s standing, it looks like he’s turning a miraculous shade of peachy-pink, but he’ll chalk it up to the angle from being 184cm tall).

Yellow comes running back in, this time with a tie-dye yellow shirt thrown on over his robe, which now pooled around his waist. The nervous energy coming off Wooyoung lowers to a simmer.

“Are we actually doing a consultation now or..?” Red huffs.

“No, that’s tomorrow. I just wanted to get you guys introduced. Give you a chance to panic now.” Still on the ground, Blue shoots her a dirty look.

_So he _does_ know who we are_… Yunho thinks.

“As I understand it, you’ll be doing a storyline piece for your next official music video involving the kinds of choreography we do here, so you’ll need to each pick your own unique color to represent and a mentor to work with. One-on-one training will be the most efficient. In addition, you’ll all be doing smaller pair pieces together to post on our channel.”

“When’s our deadline?” Blue pipes up. He had that look- the one Yunho recognized from his own hours upon hours in the studio trying out moves and making dances.

“Three months, I believe?” All eyes turn to the KQ manager, who’s already nodding in confirmation. “Three months, then _you_ go back and formally prepare for your comeback and _you_ lay low, business as usual on the channel. That means while they prepare, there will be no spoilers, no hints, no nothing, so you’ll have to write down your social media names. It’s a legal thing.”

“Oh, you guys have social media accounts?” Yunho asks.

“Yeah, one personal Twitter and one COLORS one.”

“Each.” Green clarifies. The members (his members, not them) (this was going to get confusing until he learned their names) make impressed ooh-ing and aah-ing noises, and Yunho briefly wonders why they’re like this.

“So- and you guys can correct me if I’m wrong- we have a couple of options. Either make new weapons unique to you or learn the current weapons and then have the COLORS use new weapons.”

“That’s right.” Red picks up, “If you have some ideas about what you might want to do, we can do that, or we can each teach you our weapons. There is some variation on each tool we use, but there are tons of options out there that might look more appealing. Just let us know what you want to do and I’m sure we can work something out.”

“I guess that’s it for tonight. It’s a bit late to do the tour and proper introductions. We’ll leave that for tomorrow morning?” All of the COLORS and the Ateez members groan in tired unison. She and the manager laugh. “Tomorrow it is.”

++

_Group: XXXXXX0615, XXXXXX0710, XXXXXX0403, XXXXXX0809_

_Tuesday, 8:30 pm_

Green: we really need to change this group name

**Yellow** has changed the group name to **A Cabinet of Gays**

Green: THIS IS NOT AN IMPROVEMENT

_Wednesday, 3:24 pm_

Red: has anyone seen my sweater?

Blue: [image attached]

Blue: this one?

Red: got it. Thanks!

_Today, 10:49 pm_

Green: so

Green: today has been a day

Blue: I can’t believe this is happening

Blue: like holy shit I just asdfghjkl

Blue: but then they zxcvbnm???

Blue: and like maybe I’m panicking???

Red: oh great, the maknae is broken again

Red: San, go get your conjoined twin

Yellow: can’t, still coming back from 7-11

Green: the official consultation tomorrow is going to be chaos, I can feel it

Red: it’s always chaos wherever we go, and now we’ll have twice as many people

Yellow: PREPARE FOR TROUBLE

Yellow: AND MAKE IT DOUBLE

Red: Mingi let me in in about 20m Im gonna kill your housemate

Blue: not if I kill him first

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What colors and weapons do you think Yunho, Hongjoong, Jongho, and Wooyoung should have? 
> 
> "I'll fix it later." -me, when I considered editing now


	4. DON'T STOP ME NOW

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 is off to a good start!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I completely forgot to mention that Colors is U.S-based while Ateez are still in Korea

Mingi wakes up way before his alarm; a phenomenon that has only ever happened twice, and only because the first time there was a firefighter in full tank-and-mask apparel throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and because the second time he was so paranoid from sprinting through five backyards in full Rocky Horror Picture Show garb that a cricket probably could have woken him up. He feels no trace of haziness as he delights in the fact that he now has 45 extra minutes to get ready before he has to leave. San will probably make fun of him when he finally heaves himself out of his slumber 10 minutes before they have to go, but _whatever_, he’s really about to work with his idols.

Working!!! With his idols!!!

Mingi shoves a hand in his mouth and clamps down to stop himself from full-on banshee screaming. He imagines what it’ll be like in a few hours when they’re doing the briefing, how awesome it’ll be to show them the ropes, and then his mind wanders to how they’ll react to him and Mingi thinks about how decidedly not-cool it would be if they saw him panicking like this. He takes his reddened hand out of his mouth.

_Calm down, focus._

First impressions are everything. He needs to be ready. Mingi pulls out his backpack and completely empties it, cleans it, and begins the meticulous process of triple-checking that all of his tools are there and all his weaponry is ready for show,

It’s going to be a great morning.

++

“How do you just _do_ that?” San groans into his pitch-black coffee. This is the first warm breakfast he’s seen Mingi eat since they were in college, which means he’s been conscious long enough time to flip his eggs and get his bacon all crispy even at this ungodly hour; a concept which is _unfathomable_ to him.

“Do what?”

“_That_. Be _awake _and _functioning_ at…” He looks at his watch, shakes his wrist to wake it up, fails, and squints at the neon green numbers over the oven, “6:45 in the morning? On a _weekend_?”

“It’s 6:45?” Mingi looks at all three kitchen clocks (which doesn’t help him because at any one time, one is set to be 5 minutes fast and another is set to be 5 minutes slow and one is set depending on whatever San is feeling that day.) (“It’s to keep us on our toes!” “I don’t care, I just want to know when I am!”). “We should head out soon.”

“Wha? We don’t have to be there until 7:30 for set up which means we don’t have to leave here for another 15 minutes. I intend on enjoying every minute I can get.” He takes a sip from his coffee like a chain smoker needing a fix. He immediately makes a ‘blegh’ face after but takes another swig regardless. 

“It’ll be a bad first impression if we get there late.” Mingi slips in, hoping that by taking to a larger, slightly more professional view, it’ll motivate their resident non-morning person to move faster.

He gets the ‘oh really?’ eyebrow instead.

“Pretty sure we’re already past that.”

“Nah, no way!” Mingi counters, but it’s of no use.

“Min, you were on the floor in tears and I ran away with my entire tiddie out.”

“I think you’re exaggerating.”

“_I _think you are way too invested in this and have a problem.” The smirk he gives is almost too much and Mingi rockets up from his seat, nearly knocking over his glass of orange juice.

“What?! No I don’t!”

“Mhmm.” San takes another too-large gulp of his coffee and dumps the rest. “Keep telling yourself that.”

When San finally, _finally_ does his daily pep talk and lugs himself to the car, Mingi is already in the passenger seat buckled up and ready to get to work. He’s like an overexcited puppy on the way to the dog park, and yeah, it makes sense why Seonghwa calls him that now.

“You got everything, Mr. I-don’t-have-a-problem?”

“I do. Do you?” San grunts in response. “Are you sure? Toolbox? Knife heads? Phone?”

“God DAMMIT!” The car door slams behind him as he darts out to their front door and fumbles with the lock. He comes back with his spiderweb-fractured phone in hand and a look of murderous intent. “Not a word.”

Mingi puts his hands up defensively. “I didn’t say anything.”

San’s all grumbles and venom until Mingi puts on Queen’s greatest hits and then he’s singing at max volume, and that seems to wake him up over the course of their 10.5-song ride. They park the old black Jeep in the patch on the side of the warehouse and trudge around to the back, and it looks like Jihyo and Yeosang are already there. They each pick up an armful of tools, but whereas San walks straight in singing ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ right in time with where the song would have been if they had left the music going, he stops about 10 meters from the door.

“Hey, you ok?”

Ok so maybe Mingi _does_ have a problem, but the first step is admitting it, so he’s got that going for him. What if this whole thing goes absolutely terrible? It’s not like he expects anything more than a vague acquaintanceship to come of it, they’re literally just going to work on a project together, but what if it’s strictly professional? He can do that, but it’s always more fun to work when he’s enjoying himself, and the image that he’s dreamt up about the next few weeks isn’t full of grandeur by any means, but what if he’s setting himself up for disappointment? There’s no telling what it’ll be like. He can only guess based on the shows and interviews he’s seen them do, and from what he guesses, they’re great people to be around, but it could all be a façade, and what if-

“You’re thinking too loud. Get inside, it’s gonna be fine.”

Mingi looks up.

As hyper and ruthless as he might be, San’s heart was always in the right place. After being friends for so many years and living together, they had gotten to know each other better than they knew or cared to admit. There was something about him coming home to San crying over a particularly bad date or Mingi calling him in the middle of the night because he was having an existential crisis and San was the only one who knew how to make the bad thoughts stop, or any number of things that revealed the faces they usually hid. They trusted each other; they knew each other. Whatever happened here would happen, and he couldn’t change that, but there would always be someone to lean on when things got rough.

Mingi nods and carries their tools inside.

San makes a show of kicking Mingi in the butt on his way in.

++

There’s a knock at the garage door at exactly 8:59 am, and they are nowhere close to being ready.

Seonghwa had rolled in late with an apology and a dent in his car, and when someone finally remembered to go get Yeosang from his perch in the screening room, he was livid. ("Of all the times you could have possibly forgotten me!" "We didn't forget! We were just.... Distracted..." "SONG MINGI FOR THE LOVE OF THE SUN AND ALL THE CREATURES BELOW IT I SWEAR-") They were down to the wire getting their supplies set up and here Ateez were, right on time.

He looks at the items in his arms, his general state of disarray, and runs away to make himself look moderately presentable. Flinging himself into one of their three storage closets, he puts down his prepped spears and works on tying down the armor plates connected loosely over his body. Mingi had almost hoped that they would be late. He’s been to concerts before and they always start late (something about the music industry, he supposes) so there was half a thought that maybe this would be the same, but now Jihyo is jogging down the stairs and pulling on the chain to the door to let them in.

“Good morning! Good to see we haven’t scared you away!” Jihyo says in the distance, all cheery like she usually does when she’s shaking hands with new business partners.

“Good morning. This place was much easier to find the second time around.” He hears the manager say. Mingi wrestles with the straps on his pauldrons.

“I’m glad. We’re getting some things together. I think the guys are just finishing setting up. If you follow me, you can put your bags up in the control room again.”

For a second, he’s confused as to why she would bring them to the control room when it’s much farther than the screening room or the armory, but then it dawns on him that she’s buying them a few precious extra minutes to bring out the last of their equipment. Mingi exits the closet as quietly as he can and grabs his example outfit which he kept around for occasions like this. He sees San beside him coming out of the screening room and Yeosang is coming in from the outside. They walk out to stand with Seonghwa, already on the floor, and wait to start the consultation.

++

As the most approachable of the Colors, Mingi’s met tons of people in tons of environments. Anything that gets thrown at him, he can handle.

But no amount of YouTubers or businessmen or parents could prepare him for talking to Yunho straight-on when the rosy-cheeked sleep blush was still fading out and his voice was a slow, sleepy two octaves lower than yesterday. Usually talkative, this version of Mingi could only manage a ‘Hi! Good Morning!’ so nothing horrifying could slip out of his dumb, dumb mouth. He settles back into place next to Yeosang and does a horrible job at not internally panicking. On the other end of the line, Seonghwa steps forward.

“Alright! First of all, welcome to your first orientation. We do this every morning just so everyone has a sense of what’s going on. It’s important above all other things that you’re aware of your surroundings and know who else is going to be on the field at the same time. Safety is our primary concern since some of what we do is inherently dangerous. Our goal here is to help you and teach you while keeping everyone injury-free.”

Nods. Seonghwa is trying his hardest not to talk down to them, but he has a mental script that he’s reading off of and doesn’t know how to get off of. It doesn’t help that they’re sitting on the ground while the Colors are standing. It sort of reminds him of when there would be guests in his kindergarten class and they would stand at the front while their teacher introduced them. It’s kind of awkward.

Which is why San chooses that exact moment to take over.

“Neat. Before we get into the actual weaponry, we need to go over armor requirements. It’s so we don’t get sued. I like having money and a job and I don’t want my insurance to go up.” He deadpans. The comment about insurance gets a laugh. “Everyone wears armor depending on what they’re using. This is so you don’t get hurt when someone’s whacking you but also so you don’t hurt yourselves.”

Concerned stares. Yunho tilts his head like a confused puppy and Mingi has to put every ounce of effort into not smiling like an idiot.

“We’ll get to that later. Everyone is required to wear some kind of torso piece so your insides stay on the inside. What it’ll look like, that’s up to you, but the torso plates are a must.”

“There are three weapon classes. There used to be a fourth but _someone_ “ At his side, Yeosang turns his whole body at an awkward angle to comedically glare at their hyung, “almost blew out the lights with an arrow a few years back so we stopped.”

Seonghwa grumbles, “I thought we weren’t mentioning that again.”

“I remember no such promise.”

“_Okay!_” Mingi chimes in to stop those two from an impromptu scuffle. He wonders if he was maybe a little _too _enthusiastic, but he tells himself to overanalyze later so he can get this sentence out like a coherent human, “There are long, short, and mid-range weapons. Seonghwa and I both use pole weapons, which count as long range. Yeosang’s sword is a mid-range. San’s knives are both long and short range. Each one has a different combat style, which we can get into when we break off into pairs.”

His brain stops working when he says the word ‘pair’ because of the whole Yunho-is-sitting-right-there thing, but the higher powers are merciful and Seonghwa takes over again.

“Keep in mind that the only time we ever do something on the fly is when we’re playing Sabotage. Everything else is choreographed and practiced. Don’t be a hero. Don’t try to be cool. Just play it safe and it’ll eventually build up to a full scene.” He makes a point at looking each member in the eye when he says the part about playing it safe. There have been more dummies hurting themselves trying to recreate Marvel moves than anyone would care to mention. “Have you thought about what you want to do for your shoot?”

All heads turn to look at Hongjoong. “We’d like to have different weapons, ones unique to us.”

“I like it. You have things in mind?” Nods. An especially enthusiastic nod from Wooyoung. “Great. So let’s split up and we’ll start designing. We’ll have time to do armor fittings and maybe get into basic moves before the day is done.”

++

Group: **A Cabinet of Gays**

Red: Ready to start the fitting on my end!

Mingi makes a confused face and texts back immediately.

Blue: It’s only been 30 seconds????

San and Yeosang start throwing in their two cents which makes Seonghwa reply with a meme, which sends the other two into a rage. He rolls his eyes. Mingi taps the little bell icon on his ringer until it goes to silent, then places it face down on the dresser.

“It sounded like you came in knowing what you wanted this morning.” He offers, hoping that his natural non-threatening disposition would make Hongjoong relax enough for them to get a conversation going. If there’s one thing he hates, it’s silence. It makes him think he’s done something wrong.

“After we got in the van, we started talking about it. The others are excited, even if they don’t look it.”

“They looked like they were ok with it.” He reassures. 

“You mean _Wooyoung_ looked ok with it.” He says with a sly smile. By the look on his face, Mingi guesses that Hongjoong knows he’s backed him into a proverbial corner.

“Those are your words, not mine.” He says, and then cringes internally at his attempt at sounding like a moderately intelligent human instead of a squirrel looking for its missing brain cell. “What did you come up with during your van ride?”

“I’d like something that can be both offense and defense, something that’s easily convertible.”

Mingi tries to visualize the armory and what they have laying around that might work. “So like shields that can come apart and come back together?”

“Sort of, but not as heavy. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m a lot smaller than the rest of my members, so it would be bad for me to be slow.” The leader lets out a slight chuckle and which sort of hurts his heart. From checking around on social media, he knows how fans baby him and how instead of the wide-eyed wonder Yunho and Jongho beget, he's met with 'so cute!'s and requests for aegyo.

“That’s a good way to think about it! You’re already planning your strategy! We’ll make you something lightweight. Whatever you pick will have to compact too so you can do dives.” Mingi pulls out the sketchpad he conveniently left for himself earlier out with an assortment of pens and pencils. “Can you sketch out what you’re thinking?”

Hongjoong shuffles in his seat. “Yeah, I can draw it, it’s just… don’t judge.”

He agrees, of course- Mingi isn’t the kind of person to judge, but Hongjoong doesn’t know that yet. They make small talk while he works on his weapon- where are they staying, how is America treating them, do they like the food, etcetera. Hongjoong asks if Mingi knows of any good things to do or see in the area to which he responds no and instead tells him of all the places where there are actually people and life. He tells him about the different college towns and naturally this leads to a discussion about school and work. Mingi glosses over most of the details of his tech job at the architecture firm. Hongjoong talks a bit about his experience producing music, most of which Mingi already knew about from being part of Atiny, but he’s not about to out himself like that. He’s polite and listens with great intent, making the appropriate reaction noises when necessary.

Hongjoong draws for about 10 minutes and annotates for another 5. The pen strokes are light and sketchy as the criss-cross to form an intricate weave of sharp points and curved edges.

“This way I could have a sharp edge, like a sword, but I could also open it to be a shield.” He points to each of the parts as he speaks. It’s a great design, if Mingi does say so himself- it’s unique and functional. More thought must have went into this than Hongjoong initially let on; either than or his brain works at incredible speeds, which he wouldn’t doubt either.

“Oh! So like an umbrella?”

Hongjoong looks away, sheepish. “I mean, I wouldn’t call it that…”

“What about….” _Come on Mingi, use that noggin of yours…. _“What about 'grappling hook'. Does that sound better?”

He’s treated to a blinding, perfect smile full of shiny white teeth. “Much better.”

A wave of satisfaction ripples through him. “Great, so now that we’ve got that down, have you thought about which color you wanted?”

“We rock-paper-scissored last night for colors. I got white.”

“Perfect. That means it’s time for armor!”

++

Group: **Choi San Will Die**

Unread messages (68)

> Open

Group: **Choi San Will Die **

_Today, 9:28 am_

Angry Bird: A joust at high noon!

Roomba: That’s not how that works

Adrenaline: Meet me behind the curly q slide

Angry Bird: Doom awaits

Roomba: Why are we like this

_Today, 10:02 am_

Angry Bird: Whenever you guys are ready I’m teaching Wooyoung how to fall

Adrenaline: Yunho’s trying to figure out how to walk without tripping

Adrenaline: Looks cool in the robe tho

Roomba: I’m still helping mine get dressed

Angry Bird: Kinky

Roomba: Beak it, birdy

THE Baby: We’re just about done here, be out soon

THE Baby: Oh my god no

**THE Baby** has changed **Angry Bird**’s nickname to **Red**

**THE Baby** has changed **Roomba**’s nickname to **Green**

**THE Baby** has changed **Adrenaline**’s nickname to **Yellow**

**THE Baby **has changed their nickname to **Blue**

**Blue** has changed the group name to **WHY**

Blue: JFC guys

When they meet up in their new armor, it's like kids being turned loose in a carnival. Ateez waste no time tackling each other just to see if they can (which they can) and proceed to try to tussle the daylights out of each other (which they do). Wooyoung is punching Hongjoong to see how tough his chestplate is. Yunho is twirling in his hooded robe. Jongho is doing kung fu moves with zero form. The notes that were once attached to each piece of armor indicating which modifications needed to be made where are littered across the play field. It's a disaster.

San sits by and watches with great intent.

“Go for the headlock!” he shouts, and Wooyoung does a high-pitched hyena laugh as he runs from Yunho.

Mingi laughs and starts shouting counter-instructions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna see if I can upload pics somewhere to show what I envisioned for each of their outfits. If anyone has recommendations, please beam them my way!


	5. HALA HALA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No actual music in this one. It took me a long time to work through this one but I'm pleased with it. I'm probably going to skip to the day that they use the demo weapons to get a feel for them.
> 
> Also wordpad has no spellcheck, so bear with me

There must be some grand conspiracy going on between the lords of the universe. They’re probably snickering to one another, enjoying the way Mingi suffers at his workstation through another Monday. The only thing he’s been able to do since he got in at 8 is quietly scream to himself and plan choreos while his playlist cycles through songs. He’s reread the same paragraph about 20 times now, but he doesn't have enough brain cells left to retain it when they're all being used to design Hongjoong's weapon.

  
After getting all the members dressed on Saturday, they did a lesson on how to fall properly and how to block. It would be too risky revealing their comeback plans if they popped up on social media all scratched up. No one would bat an eye if San or Mingi came in looking they’d gotten into a barfight; one would yell ‘you should see the other guy’ and everyone would laugh and their bosses would give those 'get back to work' glares and that would be it. Besides them, Seonghwa worked in a boxed-off office and usually kept his door closed and Yeosang was a remote contractor who tended to see the moon more often than the sun.

  
But Ateez?

Not a chance.

Atiny were like over-protective, highly-invested aunties. They ran the gamut from supportive aunties to wine aunties to the ever-favored vodka aunties, but they cared and they supported with such conviction that the group had collected a sizeable following within just their first year of debut. (Mingi knows this because he traipses around on Twitter with his personal account and hangs out like a fly on the wall in both the Korean and English Aminos, but those are facts that no one needs to know.) COLORS’ Rainbows always posted up a storm whenever they would post pictures showing off matching bruises or members laying flat on the floor laughing- it meant they’d get new content soon- but he imagines that Atiny, being the protective bubble around their idols, would not be so pleased.

  
That was why they were taking extra days- this entire week, actually- to do basic training and basic safety.  
But he shouldn’t wish his life away- he’ll be out at the warehouse soon enough. They’re going to meet at 6 and it was already _ugh God, it’s only 2:15?_ Mingi’s forehead makes a loud _clack!_ as it hits his desk, startling the occupant on the other side. He apologizes to Akash, the manager visiting from the California office, makes some half-hearted comment about the Monday Blues, and tries rereading that same paragraph for the 21st time.

++

The second the clock reaches 4:59, Mingi starts scrambling to put his things away like San has set their apartment on fire and he has 0.0003 seconds until it turns into a disco inferno. He flings his bag onto his back, shouts something that sounds vaguely like a goodbye to Akash, and starts searching for San.

  
...who is oddly difficult to find. His office, the cafeteria, and the Blue Room look like ghost towns save for the baggy-eyed cleaners who give him a bored 'what are you looking for' as he sprints off. Mingi makes use of the long, long legs Yeosang always said he was jealous of to find his teammate in one of the conference rooms slowly putting his things into his bag. He catches himself on the doorway so he doesn't go flying all the way down the hall.

“Hey.” He wheezes, pushing the limits of his lungs. The next few breathes are deep and labored; an uncommon sight for any of the Colors since they’d developed an impressive stamina from fighting, but there was something about this whole situation that made it difficult for him to breath, or at least to inhale again after asdfghjkl-ing his lungs out. "You ready to go?"

San gives him an unimpressed look and seems to move even slower sensing Mingi’s urgency, or maybe that was the urgency talking. "Give me a minute..."

“They're going to be there in less than an hour and we have to set up.” His breathing is back to normal, but his heart is still doing cartwheels in his chest. It's happening so soon, the whole arrangement so sudden, the thoughts swirling like leaves in the fall. Ateez have probably been out exploring or practicing or something. Have they been enjoying themselves? Are they resting? It’ll be a good time just letting go and dancing around freeform to the music, but they need to be ready in order to do that.

"You're preaching to the choir." San hauls his own bag over his shoulder and shuts down his computer. "Let's go, speed racer."

They make it down the first set of stairs without incident. San talks about the giant weapon he spent all of Sunday making that sounds suspiciously like it'll be a pole and Mingi tries not get his hopes up that he'll be mentoring Yunho. It would be incredible luck for him to pick something like a trident, but Mingi won't be disappointed if he gets Jongho or Wooyoung. Wooyoung looks like the type to be able to do acrobatic moves, so any weapon with decorative tassles like Mingi's ribbon spear or Seonghwa's light-up bowl pike would be great for him. And Jongho is so strong that a heavier weapon like the full-bladed halbard would be easy for him to perform w-

"Leaving so soon?" A voice behind him hums. Mingi whips around.

In the office they just walked past, a well-dressed man steps out into the walkway, hands folded neatly behind his back. He wears an amused smile as Mingi attempts to recover from his wide-eyed 'oh my god that's one of the top-class bosses and he might end my entire career' shock.

"Hey Lars! Yeah, we've got to be somewhere in about half an hour." San answers. He doesn't even bat an eye because ah yes, of course, this must be the guy he keeps referring to as Euro-hyung. The older ladies from HR in the offices next door adored San, so the second one of them brought news of their unofficial child being all buddy-buddy with one of the big shots, Mingi had known too. (Which Mingi had texted him about and was immediately met with laughing cat emojis, followed by San materializing on the HR floor in two minutes flat to put an end to it all.)

"Got a date?" The boss, Lars, chuckles.

"Just with this guy on the battlefield." San's leg flies up, and Mingi automatically sticks his arm out to catch it. They look something like a strange ballroom dance team, or maybe like two figure skaters, and he briefly leaves his mortal body to spectate the disaster in third person.

"Alright, have fun you two." The man vanishes into the office and shuts the door. Mingi goes the whole nine yards and heaves a laughing San over one shoulder, holding his bag in his opposite hand.  
At least now they'll get to the parking garage faster...

++

Yeosang is awake when they get there, and they can see Seonghwa off in the distance coming from his workplace up in the city. Jihyo greets them, gives them a run down of the day, and then excuses herself with a jumble of words to take a phone call.

"Fifteen minutes. You need help getting suited?" San places his phone in his bag and throws it with expert accuracy onto the couch in the screening room. They go off together into the storage room on the left, where all of their armor hung along the walls.

"Nah, I'm ok. You going shirtless again?" He says, cocking his head to one side with a smirk, and dodges the sneaker being thrown at him.

Getting dressed with other members around was pretty common. They'd all seen each other stripped down to their underwear at one point or another (Lord knows that the image of San running out fully naked has been burnt into the back of his eyes from the legendary Dishwasher Incident) so it isn't as big of a deal as it used to be. On the opposite wall, San wraps himself in his robe, the one with the criss-cross front, and secures it with the thick yellow band to prevent bruising. To his right, Seonghwa forgoes buttoning his tunic over wrestling with his slacks. Mingi pulls his chestplate on over his head.

_Knock knock knock_

"They're here."

Only Jihyo's head sticks past the door and her eyes are covered with one hand. She hasn't accidentally barged in on them and she doesn't intend to break her streak. The only time she's ever come close to it is when Yeosang had been in the screening room and the loose shorts he napped in had ridden up, but no one really counted that. Seonghwa, usually the one to greet guests, throws Mingi a panicked I'm-the-least-amount-of-ready look.

"Ok, I'll be out there in a moment." Mingi supplies, tightening all four of the straps on his chest plate on so he doesn't forget about it and it goes flying off when he tries to do a front handspring. He takes a deep breath and slips out from the storage room into the play field.

"Good afternoon!" His hand seems to have a mind of its own coming up to wave. "The others are in the back getting suited up. If you guys could go put your things on the couch in there, we'll meet you on the play field."

The coherency with which he greets them is surprising, and Mingi mentally cheers for himself when Ateez give him a smile and nod and go off to do just that. He runs back to the storage room to finish putting on his arm guards and shin plates and comes back out joined by San, tapping his shoe against the floor every few steps so his foot feels comfortable in it. Yeosang emerges with Jihyo from the other door and they reach the line as Seonghwa comes out of the storage room while tightening the old belt straps attached to his own chestplate.

"Great! So it looks like you guys came ready to go. We're going to be doing more basic moves, this time block. Sound good?" Seonghwa is using that tone again, the one he usually reserves for teaching, but it's better now that he's gotten a chance to talk with them. Planning the weapon with Wooyoung and get him suited must have flipped a swtich because he's way more relaxed than he was Saturday. Mingi can see him leaning back with one leg out, one leg bent while he explains the different types of movements. He usually stands on the balls of his feet with his back straight to stop himself from fidgeting- it's good that he's getting comfortable.

The members nod and split off with their Color. Hongjoong quirks his head in a silent 'hey', and it hits Mingi that this is the coolest interaction he's ever had in his entire 21 years of existence. Here he is... just super casually hanging out with an idol (one of HIS idols) like they've known each other for years and not for 60 hours, give or take. Hongjoong is super personable, probably a byproduct of holding so many fansigns and being ping-ponged from interview to interview. They make small talk in between Mingi giving pointers on when it's better to block instead of dodge and how to not get concussed. He's heard most of these stories already since he listens to the radio while wrangling with the latest software crash San has engineered, but somehow hearing it in person makes to 100x better.

Hongjoong is a fast learner. When his form is off, he watches Mingi intently, studying him, and corrects himself on the second if not the first try. He doesn't get frustrated and he only lets go of his focus so he can regain it better.

"You're really good at this! Is it ok if we try it with an actual object or do you want to do some more practice without it first?" He asks after Hongjoong does an impressive upward block then spins to a downward one with his opposite hand. He seems to get the rhythm of the movements, and that will help tremendously once they get to choreography.

"An object?"

_Oh, right, oops._ "I have one of those Nerf swords that kids use. We use them to give people something to block against. It helps with visualization and finding weak points."

Upon hearing 'Nerf', he relaxes. "Ah! Ok, that's fine."

Mingi leaves to pick up his foam sword duct taped to a stick to make a spear resting at the edge of the mat. He sees San trying to help Jongho keep his balance while kicking with his right foot, Seonghwa adjusting Wooyoung's punch height, and Yeosang holding his kick position while explaning something to Yunho. When he comes back on, he makes sure to face the center of the field, subtly directing Hongjoong to face the outside. It was a tactic they used to make their students more comfortable- if they couldn't see the other people, they'd feel less self-conscious and could make mistakes and improve without wondering how they compared to the others.

He spins the spear from over his shoulder to under and behind his arm.

"Ready?"

Hongjoong shakes himself out, regaining his focus. He puts his hands up with his left hand forward.

"Ready."

Mingi goes slow at first, but it's apparent that he doesn't have to. If he was good at this before, Hongjoong was even better now that he had a clear target to block against. They continue for a while, Mingi (very quietly) telling Hongjoong about how Yeosang is able to do absurdly high kicks because he used to be a cheerleader and how Seonghwa had tried to copy him and ended up needing a heat pack. His spear only makes contact once, which had happened while they were both distracted by Hongjoong's story about possible ballerina Wooyoung.

It looks like the others are doing well too. The steady _thwack! of_ Wooyoung blocking Seonghwa's spear strike is promising. They'll have a group discussion once Ateez go back for the night, but for now they stretch out and discuss their weapon ideas. It turns out to be much easier than he anticipated getting all eight of them to talk as a group using it as a common topic.

When it's time for them to leave again, Mingi mentions that the prototype should be ready to go by Friday, granted everything works the way he planned it to. He could probably have it done by Wednesday if he really wanted to, but better safe than sorry.

"Wow, that's great! Thank you so much!" Hongjoong scribbles down his number on a scrap of paper and tells Mingi that if there's anything he can do to help, let him know.

  
Mingi stares at it uninterrupted for a solid three minutes before Seonghwa shakes him out of his daze.

++

There's a reason why they never have lessons or any plans after 9:00. It's because anyone within a 10-foot radius of the milling machine was effectively deaf, and everyone else within a 50-foot radius played their music loud enough to drown it out. It's tough to make weapons in general, but he's so excited to be making the grappling hook that it doesn't feel like a burden.

"How's your weapon doing?" Mingi asks as he sits on the stool behind Yeosang. He can see what looks like a throwing ring, but it's probably going to be attached to something else based on the column sticking out of one end. The plaster model is already huge which means the final model is going to be heavy.

"Just working out the kinks on these outer pieces. I'm thinking of making the radius larger and moving it up just to stop the pieces from snapping upon impact." He indicates alond the outside to the three pyramid-like attachments on the outside. There will be more- four more, if this is going to go the way he thinks it will- attachments along the outside.

As cool as it would have been to make the weapon reveals a surprise, no one person held all the knowledge on how to build these things. The closest they had to that was San, but even San would come around to ask Yeosang about color matching or to ask Seonghwa about financing or to ask Mingi about practicality. They would be able to do most of the job on their own, but until then, they were all involved in each other's work.

It's a long process getting the acryllic into the right shape the first time, but once he's got it, the other five are easy. There are going to be three main pieces- the rod handle, the branches supporting the structure, and the rods themselves which at the moment look more like miniature scythe blades. Actually, that would be really cool if one of them had a scythe.... Lost in his own mind, a tap on his shoulder brings him back to the present.

"You almost done?" A suspicious eyebrow raise, a mildly displeased grimace. San has his jacket and his bag on, and behind him is Yeosang. Seonghwa must have already left. Mingi looks at his watch for the first time since he drilled the holes in the first set of branches. He takes a sharp inhale.

_Hnnng oh god_

It's almost midnight.

He looks at the three spokes connected and the three laying on the floor just waiting to be joined on the main frame. Doing some mental math, he figures that if he can finish these up quick, he can be cozy in dreamland by 2am, which is his absolute latest cutoff time.

"I have a couple more things to do. You headed out?" San nods.

"Yeah. Keys are on the hook. Sang's gonna give me a ride back."

"Cool, I'll see you at home then."

"Don't stay here too long. You'll burn yourself out and be a dead man at work."

"I won't." Mingi reassures, "Good night!"

San and Yeosang each wish him goodnight, see you later.The door to the storage room closes behind Yeosang. Mingi turns up the volume on _Hala Hala_ and starts aligning the fourth spoke.

++

To no one's surprise, San was right.

Stumbling into the house and then crashing into his bed at 3:30 was not the smartest decision he's ever made in his life. Mingi feels like he's 5 degrees from completely falling over throughout the entire day. He takes his own car to work just so he can chase those precious extra minutes of sleep and staggers into the office later than usual. Akash is gone, thank goodness, so he can groan into his coffee without disturbing anyone. The brick walls of the refurbished factory provide enough insulation where Margaret on his one side won't hear him and the ever-sensitive Tadeo can ignore him on the other. He manages to make it through the Tuesday with the help of a 30-minute power nap spent in the back of his car.

  
San doesn't say anything when he finds Mingi with his face in his palms, cursing himself at his desk, but he does hand him the rest of the coffee he'd been drinking. Lars doesn't come out to intercept them today, but Mingi, with his head hanging from exhaustion, knows that they haven't gone unnoticed.  
He gets dressed slower this time, but now that he doesn't have to do any hard-core thinking, he feels more awake. Seonghwa tells the group that they're going over grappling today and ok, sure, whatever you say, chief. There was no real plan to their lesson schedule. On the semi-rare occassions someone scheduled a lesson, it was a one-time deal, so it was pointless doing all this blocking and striking and whatnot in any sort of order.

Mingi takes Hongjoong off to their side of the field and trusts in his ability to speak Korean to convey what he's trying to teach. The goal of grappling is to neutralize the opponent, and with your style of fighting, which will rely on dodging and opportune, infrequent striking, this will come in handy, he says, and Hongjoong nods, but his eyes keep darting to something behind Mingi, causing him to turn, just in case. Both he and San recoil a bit once they realize how close they are.

"What's up, Sannie?"

"I was thinking- maybe you should go with Yunho since you're about the same height. I'll go with Hongjoong since I'm lighter." San says, indicating towards Yunho, who does that awkward I-don't-know-what's-happening smile. Thinking about it, there are a lot of things wrong with San going with Hongjoong, but it's at least a better match than what they have now.

The only worry is Mingi fanboying over Yunho like the cringefest he knows he can be, and with his tired, uncontrollable mouth, he shrugs, "Sure."

"Splendid!" San phyiscally moves Mingi so that they're now standing in each other's spots. Turning to Hongjoong ends that conversation, and he walks over to the opposite side of the field to where Jeong-why-are-you-so-freaking-tall-and-genetically-blessed-Yunho is waiting.

"Hey, I'm not sure if San explained what was going on-"

"Not really, he just sort of.... said 'hold on' and left."

Mingi lets out a soft chuckle. That was such a San thing to do. "It's a size matchup. To get a better sense of how to move once we get into the different locks."

Yunho makes a quiet _oooooh_ sound of realization. There's a pause, a space where neither is sure what to say or do; what crossed lines and what was so far away from the line it wasn't worth saying.

Mingi summons all of his coherency and asks, "Let's start, shall we?"

Yunho nods and gets into the ready position.

"Let's."

++

Mingi expects himself to panic.

He expects his breathing to stop when they go over headlocks and Yeosang asks him something while Yunho is still looping his arm around Mingi's neck and Mingi decides the hold onto him while he answers like one of those couple pictures. 

He expects himself to blush a brilliant shade of tomato when he lifts Yunho and gently spins him in a slow Judo throw and uses one arm to support his weight, earning a impressed 'woah'.

He expects his words to come out uneven and strained as their small talk evolves into bonding over the difference between their groups' on- and off-stage behavior.

But he makes it through the rest of the hour without incident.

And the reason?

Exhaustion.

For once, it's come in handy not having the energy to turn into a gay catastrophe. He feels muted, but at least this way, he can't embarrass himself as much, and he won't make Yunho feel weird. Apart from the physical pain he feels from being conscious, this is a win-win situation.

It's about 8:45 when the sweaty and tired eight of them take their cool down lap and sit down to stretch. Jongho is strong, but the motion of picking up Yeosang and tossing him over a dozen times would make anyone's body feel like jelly.

Their manager comes at 9:00 to drop off the forms about disclosure and other big words that Jihyo will have to translate into usable English later. They pick themselves up and trudge to the big garage door, and from his position at the back, they look good as one group.

"Tomorrow we'll get to striking." Seonghwa says as they standing the parking lot, doing the last round of 'thank you's and 'see you tomorrow's. The members (all of them) nod in ackowledgement and the idols start climbing into the car again.

"Hey," Yunho taps him on the shoulder, Mingi's surprise only showing by the way his eyes widen, before enveloping him in a quick bro-hug, like the kind that involved grabbing one hand and ramming shoulders into one another. He feels Yunho's free hand patting his back and reciprocates in a daze. "It was great working with you. I'll see you tomorrow!"

They all stay outside together to wish Ateez goodnight, safe travels, watching as the taillights turned around a corner and vanished into the woods.

  
Mingi wraps his arms around himself and smiles at the warm feeling in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've rewritten this a whole bunch of times so I'll fix continuity errors as I find them.  
I'm going to sketch out the outfits that I was imagining for Pirate King in Chapter 1. When will this happen? Who's to say.  
Come bother me on Twitter! [@Porteaux_Perah](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah)


	6. OH MY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ateez get their weapons and Mingi forgets what oxygen is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made moodboards for [San](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1195583085326327808?s=20) and [Mingi](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1195196129639632897?s=20).

_Come on, don't be such a baby, it's just a text! And he said you could message him if you needed anything..._

His thumb hovers over the blue 'deliver' arrow, 1, 2, 3, but then Mingi lets out another gargantuan sigh. He throws his phone into one end of his blanket pile; his face into the other.

"Have you still not sent it?" San chides around his toothbrush. His cheek is puffed out to a comical level, and on any other day Mingi would whip out his phone and take a picture for his Choi Meme collection, but today he's in the depths of turmoil.

"It's not that easy! I mean, wouldn't you be kind of weirded out if someone texted you in the middle of the night like 'hey, what do you think of this giant hook I made for you'?"

"In any other situation, yes, but considering who we are and who they are, this is just another day in the life." 

Mingi falls back onto the futon and throws the blankets over his head in defeat. 

"You're stalling, Min, I'm sure whatever you wrote is fine. Let me read it again." San makes grabby hands and does the 'eh' face upon reading the same sentences he's been reading for the past hour. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

"I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow. I mean, we're going to show them then anyway, right?"

"Mingi I swear to the good earth and spirits of the ocean that if you don't send it now, I'm going to take your phone and change it to 'yeet yeet bo peep' and send it myself."

They lock eyes, Mingi's narrow serpentine glare meeting San's playful cat-like challenge. "You wouldn't dare." 

"October 24." San bites back, and damn, Mingi forgot how dangerous his friend was knowing all five of the passwords he rotated through. 

He weighs his options, tries to figure out if he can beat San in formal combat with all this furniture that his parents gave him in he way, but the odds don't look so good. 

San throws up his hands. "Aish, Mingi, just text him! This is Hongjoong we're talking about, the guy you said was super understanding and friendly that one time you made me sit through 'An Unhelpful Guide to Ateez'. And you're _you_, he'd have to be heartless not to like you. And if he doesn't like you, I'll kill him myself!"

"Ok my god, fine! No murder!!! I'll send the text." 

San glares at him the entire time he's rereading and only leaves once Mingi shows him the little 'sent' message below the text. 

_Today, 10:30pm_  
_XXXXXX0809_: Hi Hongjoong, this is COLORS' Mingi! I had a question about the hook   
_XXXXXX0809_: [picture attached] This is what the top looks like, and I was wondering if you would prefer a longer or a shorter handle?

  
He waits an agonizing 45 seconds planning his escape to join a tribe of bush people so he can avoid everyone who's ever seen him be his embarrassing self before the phone rings again. Mingi practically pounces on it, types in 1824 and then 1054 and then 1827 and then finally 1024, and clicks the notification.

  
_XXXXXX1107:_ Hi Mingi, thanks for the pictures! It looks great! I think shorter would work best for me  
_XXXXXX1107_: I'm excogtdcx

Mingi blinks at his phone, then turns it so San can see. 

"Um...." he waits for a text with an asterisk and a correction but receives none. 

"I dunno, just respond."

He sends back a 'Sounds good, I'll do that' as though that last bit wasn't there and waits. He waits long enough for San to finished brushing his teeth, washing his face, and throwing on pajamas and this is kind of long, isn't it? What could possibly be happening? Should he continue planning his elbaorate escape to the Australian wilderness? His phone rings again after two minutes, this time in three quick blips.

_Today, 11:11pm _

_XXXXXX1107_: Sorry, Wooyoung jumped me  
_XXXXXX1107_: He also demanded that I give you his number because now he's curious about his weapon  
_XXXXXX1107_: And I said no, because that would be impolite, but he wrestled my phone away and I'm sorry for whatever is about to happen 

Mingi looks to San with panic, but it's not like he'd have the answers either. 

"Um????"

The phone blips again.   
And again.  
And again. 

_Today, 11:14pm_

_XXXXXX1126_: Hi Mingi!!! This is Wooyoung :D   
_XXXXXX1126_: I saw Joongie's weapon and it looks awesome!!!   
_XXXXXX1126_: Do you know anything about the plates Seonghwa is working on? I didn't think of giving him my number

Wooyoung seems to text with a stream of consciousness, his texts coming with one or two words and shortened half-phrases as though he was using speech-to-text and every 2-second pause meant 'send'. Mingi stares with his mouth open, wondering which of the four questions he should answer first as more roll in. San claps him on the back. 

  
"This one is all you, chief." He smiles, and goes back to his room. 

++

San isn't the kind to wake up before noon unless he has to, no matter what time he goes to sleep. After that one work trip to visit a potential build site overseas, he'd caught the red-eye home and collapsed in the doorway of their apartment at 4pm. It had been Mingi who picked him up like a limp cat and tossed him onto his bed, thrown his shoes in the corner, and wished him good whatever. It had also been Mingi who had done a pulse check at 6 and then at 10 and then at midnight, during which San came up with progrssively more creative and colorful strings of threats for if Mingi wouldn't leave him in peace because if there was anything he hated, it was being woken up.

Mingi leaves a note on the fridge telling him to text when he wakes up and not to be late. He addresses the note to 'Waffle' because San hates that name and signs it 'Poookie <3' with all three o's because it reminds him of Time They're Never Supposed To Talk About #64, and maybe inducing San's rage will make him move faster. 

Mingi's Volkswagon van (he's lovingly named it Hunky Dory, for obvious reasons) takes up a large portion of the grassy lot, so he parks it as far in the back as he can. It's likely that he'll be the last to leave again since they need to work on their Halloween Special weapons, do lessons, and plan choreo for their regular monthly upload. It would keep the Rainbows off their trail if they posted as though this whole mess wasn't happening. Since they already did one K-pop song on the channel officially, suggestions had come pouring in for every possible group. About 3,000 votes later, Monsta X's 'Oh My' had won and Mingi and Seonghwa were doing slow swings at one another, stopping periodically to discuss. 

"What if we try a back and forth.... hold on...." Mingi moves his spear, trying to figure out how it'll look when they have to record and what they'll be the least likely to mess up. Their videos were done in one-take recordings, as wild as that sounds, and a big mistake meant starting the video all over again from the top. Quality and all that, San had said after doing their fourth take for Cash Cash's 'Millionaire' and nearly getting verbally annihilated by Yeosang. 

"We can try it." Seonghwa shrugs. He leans over to rewind the song to the verse before the pre-chorus. They each take two bounces and swing. 

_Jjaengjjaeng haejin volume joha_   
_Mok nagal ttaekkaji dagati nora _

Mingi crosses his spear in front of him to where match where Seonghwa's axe is. The spear goes down, butterflies around the back, and then into a swing at hip height. During this time, they move past each other in a quick three-step spin that will cause the tails of their outfits to fly out once they get to full speed. 

_Gomaguel tago nareul gwantonghan _   
_Jjarishan i sori_   
_Oh- _

They circle around each other, weapons up, waiting to strike. It's a strategy they use so that both of them can catch a breath before going into the chorus, which they've been talking about over the week but haven't experienced the full power of yet. 

_Soreum doda doda_

Mingi puts his spear up to defend against Seonghwa's jabs, but they never come. Confused, he lowers his weapon. "Wh-"

_Gamgakeul modu kkaewo kkaewo_   
_Neukkineun daero sorljilleo_   
_Shout!_

"Hold on-" Seonghwa has just as confused an expression as Mingi does. He slaps the space bar on the beat-up laptop to pause the music. "I thought you were going first." 

"No, it was swing-swing-stab-stab. That means you're first."

"No way! You said stab-stab-swing-swing."

"I'm like.... 90% sure I didn't say that." Mingi says, feeling 10% less confident than he did a moment ago. 

"Fine, fine, let's just do both to see how it looks." 

As efficient as they were at sorting out which moves and which members needed to be fighting at any one time, this sort of trial and error made the process drastically longer. Still, if their Rainbows wanted a quality performance, they had to be patient. 

Outside, San flies past the small window with each leaping throw. Since they'd found out rather quickly that San practicing his sequences on the main floor meant members getting whacked with zero warning, they'd arranged for a small area outside to be made his designed practice field. There's a stretch of Sabatoge-like choreo during the post-first chorus (that part where I.M comes on with his deep, deep voice) where he's considering jumping in, but to feel it out and not kill anyone, he needs to be exiled to the outdoors.

That reminds him- where was Yeosang anyway? He was just on the play field a second-

"Oh." 

"Hey guys, they're here!" Yeosang cuts in the middle to get them to stop choreographing while he runs off, presumably to reel San back inside. By now, they have a routine going- Ateez come in, throw their backs in the screening room, and start the day. It's a weekend, so they aren't so hard-pressed by the prospect of waking up early for work the next morning, which means it'll be a little different schedule-wise. 

Seonghwa approaches them first. His little update starts off good, but then he starts rattling off their plans to Hongjoong because he's the only one who looks like he's paying attention. They do perk up though at the words 'weapons' and 'ready', and it gives Mingi a little hope that they'll be just as excited about receiving them as he was about making them. The little mantra of 'it isn't the end of the world' plays though his head, though there's a difference between saying it in the dead of night when no one's around versus saying it to the actual people. 

"Running around with new armor for the first time is a struggle no matter what, but second warmup with weapons will be much easier if you've already warmed up a little." Seonghwa explains. San and Yeosang, now in the line, nod in agreement.

"We weren't sure if you wanted to record it or something- sort of like a behind the scenes thing, y'know?- so we put your outfits in different places so you could all come out at the same time." 

Perfectly in sync, all of the idols turn to face their manager. 

"I'll have to ask the company, but it wouldn't hurt to have the footage just in case." 

"Sounds good, I'll do that while you're getting changed." Yeosang looks at the manager and then at Jongho. He's relaxed, much more than Mingi could ever dream of being. 

He startles, subtly, when Hongjoong materializes next to him ready to suit up and his other members are with Hongjoong's other members heading off to do the same. Yeosang put his in a closet he knew no one was using and leads Jongho into the screening room. The door to the first storage room swings closed in Seonghwa takes Wooyoung to pull his outfit down from the rack.

Mingi leads Hongjoong to the second storage closet and stands facing away while the other man gets changed. He'd offered to stand outside, but he'd been given a wave and a 'nah, it's fine, don't worry about it' before turning to face the brick. 

Group: **Neither is Horseradish **  
_Today, 3:15 pm_

Red: Guys I don't know what happened  
Red: He put on the suit and became a completely different person  
Red: Like I know I'm confident but HOLY MOSES  
Yellow: O.O is that a flustered!Gwa I see???  
Yellow: It must be serious  
Blue: I keep forgetting you don't really know who these people are  
Blue: [gif attached]  
Yellow: OH MY GOD  
Red: This explains so much and scares me tremendously  
Green: Ready to go  
Green: Mingi put that away there are children present  
Yellow: I don't think I can unsee that  
Green: Jongho just asked what I was laughing about and I had to lie to his face  
Green: Look what you made me do! That's no way to start a relationship!

"Is this supposed to go like this?" 

"Hm?"

It takes a few mintues for his eyes to adjust back to the dimly-lit room. He can faintly see the outline of Hongjoong with some new lumps on him from the pauldrons and hip plates, but not much else. 

"Um..." Mingi moves closer. He can see that Hongjoong was actually pointing to something specific, god bless him, as opposed to holding out his arms and letting Mingi guess like he was expecting. "That looks good. Is it uncomfortable? I can always change the lengths." 

"It's fine, just.... unusual. I'm not used to wearing things that are weighted like this." 

"I promise you'll get used to it. Spending the day walking around makes you forget that it's even there. You probably won't be doing any flips so you don't need to worry about any of your tassles coming lose or slapping you in the face."

"Ok.... then I guess I'm ready to go?" Hongjoong shuffles again under his plates. 

"Sure, let me text the others..." 

Group: **Neither is Horseradish**  
Blue: Doing last check, be out in a minute  
Blue: Is the camera going?   
Green: Yup

Mingi tucks his phone snug against his rib between his tunic and his torso plates. 

"Let me check you over one last time just to be sure." 

Hongjoong nods and lets himself be inspected. Mingi almost screams over the sheer fact that he gets to do this, and that somehow he's the authority here, but holds it in. All of the ties look good, and the pieces of cloth hanging off of him don't look like they'll get his way. 

"Do you guys have a group chat or something?" he asks, and all Mingi can do is nod while flashbacks of their memewars and nickname wars and chatname wars surface. 

"We started it to discuss posssible song options and weapon designs, but now it's mostly us yelling to one another." 

Hongjoong laughs, "It sounds a lot like our group chat." 

"Oh?" Mingi unclips the lower set of plates and reclips them to guarantee their placement and to have a reason to stick around longer. Atiny assumed they had a group chat, but no one had ever confirmed it. He's curious, sue him. 

"Like yours, it was for organizing schedules and making sure that the dorm was in order," Mingi nods along, fiddling around with the upper set of plates even though he doesn't need to, "but then Wooyoung sent a meme which meant Yunho also had to respond with a meme and then Jongho started sending them one-liners and it's gone downhill from there." 

"I can see that happening. It's always the memes." 

"Oh, of course." Hongjoong says in exaggerated, sarcastic agreement. It wouldn't be good to keep him there much longer- Hongjoong would probably figure out what he's up to if he kept prying, and the other members are already ready to come out. 

Group: **Neither is Horseradish**  
Red: @Blue come out when you're ready  
Red: @Blue leave the door open

"We're gonna go out there and then call you guys." Mingi waits for a nod. At first, he only sticks his head out the door, but then he sees his members assembling on the floor. 

"Are we calling them all at once?" He jumps into place beside them. 

"I think that's the best way." 

Seonghwa turns to each one, checking if he has their attention. When he's satisfied, he yells, "On the count of three, everyone come out. Ready?"

A chorus of 'ready's comes from around the warehouse. 

"One!" 

Mingi inhales.

"Two!"

Mingi exhales, biting his lip. He briefly makes eye contact with Hongjoong standing in the doorway of the weapon room. He gives him a nod of reassurance. 

"Three!" All four new colors emerge from their rooms, and Mingi's heart races. 

_This is fucking **awesome**. _

Never in 5 million years would he have guessed that he would be doing this. The astronomical chance that he'd have the opportunity to involve an actual group of artists- people he looked up to- in what he loves made this not much more than a far-fetched fantasy not even a month ago, but he's here, someone pinch him, living out a dream. 

Hongjoong is the first one to step onto the play field in his white outfit. He looks like the definition of chic, the white spare jacket that Seonghwa was originally going to splatter red fitting perfectly from where Mingi had pulled in the seams. The v-like armor plates shine a pearly white with the coat of finish he'd sprayed last night, flowing down to a set of plates around his hips. Two white tassles hang down between where the robe-like bottom splits into four sections. He looks like a knight, and knowing Atiny, he expects to see an onslought of 'knight in shining armor' AU's. He looks happy seeing himself, and Mingi couldn't be happier with the result.

Wooyoung comes out of the door next to Hongjoong and oh wow oh wow oh wow, this explains Seonghwa's reaction. The tight dark purple outfit hugs along the line of his athletic frame, the muscularity of his thighs accentuated by the shining plates strapped with old brown belts around his legs. The plates along the sides of his body are also held with criss-crossing belt wraps and it almost looks too scandalous for what they're doing, but Mingi also knows that there's no other way. Wooyoung has a close-range weapon- he has to have armor to match his future fighting style. Once their video gets released.... Mingi can already imagine the kinds of thirst tweets that will be littering his timeline. 

Jongho doesn't exactly walk out; more like he stomps out. The heavy armor painted a coppery burnt orange is definitely more bulky that anything he's ever worn before. Because of the nature of his weapon, he's going to be hit more often than anyone else (which would be concerning except this is Choi Strongho he's talking about. Watching him trudge to the play floor is like watching a baby horse walk, but suddenly he's turned into a full-blown stallion running around like a force of nature. He tilts his head back in a war cry and takes a lap around the field. 

And then Yunho comes out.  
And Mingi forgets how to breathe. 

That's not fair. _That's not fair!_ Even if San didn't know the extent to which Mingi was weak for Yunho, he could have at least had the decency not to put him in such tight pants. Underneath an open robe is a single chest plate that tapers down into a tornado-like V. He's dressed in silky black with bright blue streaks threaded through it that almost match the light hair he's been given for their upcoming comeback. Ugh, god, how did he look like an Adonis at all hours of the day? The acne patches on Mingi's cheeks had been haunting him since middle school, and Yunho could just radiate that kind of visual power without even trying. He struts forward, turns back, and looks over his left shoulder and _oh, fuck, no,_ being a disaster was not on the agenda for today, get it together Mingi! 

Ateez are trying to get a good look at each other's outfit designs, the unique patterns, the depth of colors. They spin one another in circles and do an impromptu catwalk in the middle of the field which is definitely not what the field was made for, but hey, no one's objecting. Jihyo isn't in the window of the viewing room anymore (most likely rolling on the floor laughing), but San is 1000% into it, hyping up each one, and Yeosang watches on with second-hand embarrassment. 

"OK!" Seonghwa nudges past Mingi the second the shenanigans start wandering into NC-17 territory. "We can pick this up later and you guys can pick your individual shades, but for now, why don't we put that armor to good use?" 

The group does a collective 'yeah, you're right; and disperses. Yunho comes off the catwalk and turns around in two full circles to locate San. Jongho makes a beeline for Yeosang. Mingi almost feels bad about sending Seonghwa into stressed parent mode, but those moments are too rich to shy away from. 

"Got it, dad!" he yells. 

Mingi doesn't even try to block the boot being thrown at him. 

++

Warm up is every bit as comedic as they expected it to be. Yunho goes careening into San at one point because he does a leap and forfeits halfway. Jongho looks like he's walking around in a marshmallow suit which causes Wooyoung's high-pitched hyena laugh to reverberate off the walls, and of course this makes Mingi Evil Cackle laugh, and that was all it took for San to sound like a dolphin. 

Hongjoong gets into the swing of things once he realizes that the plates will shift around him as he moves and he doesn't have to actively move around them. They do a round of dodging and spinning which looks more like a 40% effort speed run of The Nutcracker ballet, but it helps reinforce the movements. By the time it's 7 and they're taking another break, the idols are practically vibrating in anticipation over what Mingi can only assume will be weapon reveals. It warms his heart that they're looking forward to it, but he also feels a tad nervous about it not living up to expectations. Still, though- this was a work in progress. Even the main weapons used for the official COLORS channel evolved to fit their new skills. If need be, he could always go back and modify. 

With a go-ahead tap on the leg, San does a poor job at hiding the giant pole behind his back as he returns the group, a dimpled smile on his face. He looks like he's going to explode if he doesn't say something within the next five seconds. 

"Yunho and I were talking last week and since he imagined his fighting style to be more like Min's and Gwa's, we came up with this." 

Somewhere between_ oh my god he's watched our videos, plural, Jesus take the wheel_ and _why have we never made something that awesome???_, Mingi's jaw hits the floor and he makes a general sound of amazement. The scythe zigzags back and forth twice before tapering into a blade, the core of which has holes bored out to decrease the weight. A smattering of bright blue star-like dots stands out from the black handle.

"This is the eyelet scythe. Not too heavy, not too light. It'll be good to swing around and the holes in the middle will show up when we record." 

Mingi looks his weapon over once more. Hongjoong had already seen it, so the impact wouldn't be as great, but he's still got some hope for the others. Walking back out with his performance blue spear and the folded up white hook, he rests his own weapon on the ground. The others look on in mild confusion. 

"This is the grappling hook. Mid-range combined open shield and sword. Compact, multipurpose, portable." With that said, he pops open the weapon and spins it around a few times. Seonghwa swings his axe down off of his shoulders and Mingi takes a side step to show that the open spokes aren't a shortcoming but rather a design choice. The ooh's and aah's that come with his demonstration relieve the sensation of butterflies in his stomach, and when Hongjoong starts playing around with it, they're all but gone. 

Yeosang runs out to the back to pick up the throwing ring Mingi saw now attached to a pole and a number of gem-like attachments. It looks a bit like a staff with three points, but with the size and the effort it takes for him to carry it, it's going to hit hard. 

"This is the gem hammer. Originally, we were going to go for a baseball bat-type weapon, but having full range is going to make winding up easier. We're going to have to practice not getting hit by this- it's heavier than anything we're ever made- but it's different, and I think it'll add to the quality of the fight." 

It takes Seonghwa a full minute and a chorus of 'BLACK PANTHER!' yells to get the dark plates on Wooyoung. The claw-handed gauntlets extend up past his elbows to ties on his shoulders. They clip into his neck piece to stop them from falling down completely, and if there wasn't general panic before, there was definitely chaos now. San hasn't lowered his hand from his face yet because he can't stop the bewildered smile from erupting. It vaguely reminds Mingi of that time with that guy who they don't talk about, back when San was all gushy and emotional, but the stream is broken by Wooyoung taking a few practice swipes and almost whacking Hongjoong, missing only because Hongjoong reflexively opened the grappling hook and crouched into a ball behind it. 

"You're already getting the hang of it!" San cheers, grateful for the distraction. "Congrats! You're all official armed and armored Colors now."

++

The second Ateez suggested whacking one another with their new toys, all of the Colors and both managers jump like startled cat owners watching their pet push glasses of water off the counter. That was enough excitement for one night, they'd decided, and there were no objections since the combitation of running around with 10-15 extra pounds hadn't seemed like much at first, but became a nuisance around hour four and killer around hour 6. The idols collapse onto the field for the end-of-the day stretch, met by the weapons rolling onto the floor beside them. 

Mingi helps unbuckle the armor from Hongjoong's chest. The rapper immediately falls back onto the floor the second he's out of the heavy plates.

"I need to take a nap."

"A nap?"

"I need to take a sleep." Hongjoong clarifies. 

A tendril of concern creeps into Mingi as he remembers that there's still a long ways and long hours to go before they can do their performance shoot. And oh! 

"That reminds me! Now that you have your weapons, we'll need to switch again. We're all generally proficient at using one another's but it'll be more effective for you to learn directly." The Colors sit up as they remember that, oh right, this was an action item from their last meeting. "The grappling hook is a combined sword and shield, so it would make sense for you to go with Yeosang." 

"Right. The gem mallet it a bit like a hammer, and since you used to use that, Seonghwa, Jongho should go with you." Jongho makes eye contact with Seonghwa and nods in acknowledgement. 

Now with two idols, Seonghwa sends Wooyoung off with, "The claws are a close-range weapon- you'll learn best with San." 

This catches his attention, but the idol only has enough energy to look in their unofficial leader's direction and give a thumbs up. But this leaves San with two people, which means that-

"Yunho and the scythe will go with Mingi." "Starting tomorrow, we'll work on basic fight choreography."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to everyone from HVZ who ever stopped the safety presentation to ask if mayonnaise is an instrument. I got tired of editing so I'm posting now and I'll come back to it later.  
If anyone has recommendations for drawing apps on the Microsoft store, let me know!


	7. ZOO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ateez plays their first game of Sabotage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, appearing from behind a bush: Henlo frens  
So it's been like two and a half months.... That story I was planning on speedwriting is still ongoing, as is the other one I told myself not to write specifically because I knew it would postpone Colors. But I'm back! And I wrote one of the scenes I've been dying to write! (Meaning I was impatient and skipped ahead, but pssssht, details!)
> 
> Here we go ya'll, thanks for the patience and support!

_<> Hey, it's me. Looks like the meeting is being postponed. <>_

Mingi curses, turning, looking at the group now fully armored and ready to go. Three months isn't a long time and they need all the practice they can get before doing a full performance.

His voice lowers to just above a whisper. "How long?" 

_<> Couldn't tell you, they said half an hour three hours ago. I probably could've flown to Japan myself by now. <>_

"Do you think you'll make it?" 

_<> At this rate? Probably not.<>_

On the other end, Yeosang let's out a heavy sigh.

<> _Send Hongjoong over to Seonghwa, would you? <>_

"No problem, I got you." 

_<> Thanks. And tell them I'm sorry. <>_

"Nah, it's not your fault. Corporate's killer." 

Yeosang lets out a bitter laugh. 

_<> I'll text you when I get out. If there's time, maybe I'll drop by. <>_

"For sure, but don't push. If you can't, it's cool." 

_<> Thanks Min. <>_

"No problem. Seeya." 

Mingi ends the call with another sigh.

_<> Seeya. <>_

His phone lands with a softened _ fplt _on top of the sweater in his bag.

It was ironic. Just their luck. huh? 

Mingi makes his way back to the field to deliver the news, but San already sees him approaching and lifts his head in a half-nod. 

"What's the word?"

Wooyoung, who seemed to debating something with alpacas or orcas, stops to look at him. This, of course, garners the attention of the other members as well, who leave the unreasonably large and echoey warehouse eerily quiet without their ruckus. Mingi has to swallow down the sudden self-consciousness to get his message across. 

"Yeosang won't be able to join us today. That means Hongjoong, you'll be with Seonghwa." The rapper nods, looking at the axeweilder. "We'll do warm ups as usual and more basic sequences. This shouldn't be a recurring_ … thing _so you'll be able to do more tailored one-on-one training later." 

San’s head cocks to the side like a confused puppy. "I thought his meeting ended at 3." 

"_Apparently _ he's still waiting for people to show up." The annoyance in his voice is apparent, Mingi even raising his eyebrows and waggling his head in a 'can you believe this?' motion, and Seonghwa snorts in disgust. 

"They don’t pay him enough for this. If they ever need anything from him again, I hope he passes." 

"He can't- you know how it is." 

"Yeah, yeah, duty calls..." 

They have only a second to comiserate before Hongjoong takes a step forward, putting his hand up to insert himself into the conversation. “I’m… I’m kind of confused. Where is he?” 

“Just a work thing. Same old, same old.” he shrugs, because it’s no big deal, just day to day stress, but the leader’s expression matches San’s Confused Cat look. 

"Work?"

"Yeah..." He answers, quickly double checking that he was, indeed, speaking Korean and not something like Millennial English or eighth grade Spanish when it occurs to Mingi that these common day-to-day occurrences weren't something they would have brought up otherwise because it was outside of their channel. 

It occurs to him that Ateez has only ever spoken to Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. 

And in a way, they’ve never even met San, Yeosang, Seonghwa, and Mingi. 

“Yeosang designs computer graphics as his day job. He does some other artsy tech stuff too, but I don’t really know what it is or how to describe it. He's working as a remote contractor right now for some Japanese business. Like website design and animations.” Mingi clarifies. 

Wooyoung’s body tilts towards him in disbelief. “You guys have jobs _ outside _of this?” 

“More like we have jobs, and outside of those jobs, this is what we do.” Seonghwa adds, “I work for a legal firm in the city.” 

“And San and I work for the same architectural design company.” 

"But that's all super boring adult stuff.” The dowel in San’s left hand spins on his palm as he leans back onto his left leg. He bounces it against the floor and swipes with his right, forcing Seonghwa to block, clearly ready to do less talking and more fighting. “I’d _ much _rather be doing this.”

++

Yunho’s doing well considering he’s only had his weapon for a few days and came in without fighting experience. He takes each bit of constructive criticism (Mingi always feels weird about fixing his form or explaining why something is a bad idea because usually they deal with kids and not fully grown adults their age, and as much as Yunho laughs and tells him not to worry, he still feels like he's overstepping his boundaries) in stride and learns at an alarming rate. He still reverts to basic reactions like shrinking away and ducking when he thinks he’s about to get whacked or playing an impromptu game of Birthday Pinata with his scythe instead of properly blocking or swinging, but he isn’t hardwired like the rest of them so it’s to be expected. 

It's easier to talk to Yunho now that he's gotten over his whole fanboy thing. Sure, he still admires him as an artist, but the nervousness doesn't gnaw away at his insides anymore. They get along well, and Mingi is already comfortable enough to talk casually to him as they train for the rest of the night. Sometimes Yunho will ask about how the moves are used and Mingi will go into a long explanation of what beats they go with as they practice the short sequences of up-down-spin or push forward-push back. 

It might just be something he ate, but it feels like he's being watched. Maybe it’s because he breaks off at every 15-minute breather to make sure that Hongjoong and Jongho are doing ok, or maybe it’s because he’s keeping his eye on San to make sure he doesn’t get too socially overwhelmed, but the weight of Yunho’s gaze follows him like some crooked haunted painting every time he leaves the field. He can't think of any other reason for it than Yunho is upset with him, probably for dividing his attention, but it’s not like he’s doing it out of a bad place in his heart! He’s just preoccupied with making sure everything goes smoothly. If it's really something he's hung up about, they can talk about it while they're wrapping up. 

++

"And you're _sure _there's nothing?" 

"Yes, Mingi!" Yunho laughs, and something spiteful and bright in Mingi's chest turns its head in wonder when he says his name in that gentle tone, "I promise, you don't have to worry about me." 

"Ok..." He grumbles, looking away. San is still corralling Wooyoung into the car while Manager Xiao and Jongho keep Hongjoong vertical. "Well... You worked hard today. Rest up." 

"I will." He says with a moonlit smile, "See you tomorrow." 

++

Yeosang doesn’t have any more more occupational disasters to deal with, so he’s able to spend some quality time with Hongjoong getting him ready to fight with such an odd weapon. He’s also gotten a chance to think of what kind of choreography practices he’d want to see Ateez do, which he writes into the chat at obscure hours of the day and with questionable coherency, like that one time he said 

Group: **WHY**

_ Tuesday, 8:59pm _

Green: Note to self DNA but bring out the rafters and let Wooyoung go to town 

Or a little later when he said

Group: **WHY**

_ Wednesday, 2:01am _

Green: 6 person Limitless with moving platforms camera zoom in zoom out and San does a step step spin OH BABY IT'S YOU

And the next day when he said

Group: **We Die Like Men**

_ Yesterday, 3:20 pm _

Green: woah

Green: WOAH

Ateez has even spoken a bit about what kind of song they'd like to do off their newest album (Mingi almost screams because if his hunch is correct, he'll get a sneak peek of the album and that's Pretty Heckin Cool from an Atiny point of view). They still need to talk it over with their company, but that's an issue for next week. Right now, it's 8:30 and he needs to stretch out his back, go home, and do a whole Rip Van Winkle.

“Hey, are we doing dinner tonight or what?” Mingi asks. His stomach is gearing up to let out another earth-shaking rumble, he just knows it. 

“I dunno. Wanna play for it?” Seonghwa turns to the group, who are working the straps to their armor loose. “Do you guys want to play?” 

“Play?” Jongho asks. 

“Yeah, it’s a game we do every Friday. We play a song and try to kick each other out of the ring, and also San tries to kill us. Winner gets to choose what kind of food we eat.” 

Wooyoung's eyes have effectively turned to saucers, and if this were an anime, they’d take up half his head and be filled with sparkles.

“Sabotage?” He asks in a small voice. He looks so excited, like he’s been put on at least three different types of drugs, but Honjgoong looks alarmed and from the point of view of someone who doesn’t play the way they do, it must look all kinds of intimidating. 

Silence. 

Then, Yunho.

“I’m down.” 

"Awesome! Here's how it works..." 

With one of the members willing to put his life on the line without fully knowing what he was getting into, the others give in and San runs up to the booth to give Jihyo his phone. Mingi, Seonghwa, and Yeosang alternate who's turn it is to jog into the storage room to pull out weapons while they do a team-effort explanation of the rules. They set up in the familiar formation with one member on each side, except this time, Yunho is standing at Mingi's edge wondering what in the world he's gotten himself into. San hops back down the stairs, runs to the center, and focuses in preparation for the battle. 

"You guys are gonna love this one...." he smirks. 

“Yah! No funny business this time.” Seonghwa growls. He turns his body so he can sprint to the weapon lineup. 

San rolls his eyes and unravels one knife. He waits for the music to overtake the room, the tropical hollow beats of Red Velvet’s _ Zoo _playing overhead.

_Fast beat, light, peppy... ok, got it! _

Mingi picks up his simple spear, the shortest one without all of the decorative ribbons hanging off of it. San will probably be crossing the field like a whirling dervish, so he needs to. Be able to run just as fast. Running back, he can see the idols stepping gingerly onto the mat while Yeosang and Seonghwa come stomping on like cavemen. Mingi jumps in, spinning his spear.

“Coming back!”

_ nuneul tteonneunde ontong isanghae _

_ daeche museun iriya _

The blade criss-crosses ahead of him. His hand turns to the side, indicating an overhead helical swing next. 

_ nasseon sorido pureun millimdo _

_ daeche yeogin eodiya _

San crosses to the middle of the field, forcing a very overwhelmed Hongjoong out to the sides. He switches directions and heads left. 

_ sangsanghaetteon sarange ppajin geu sungan _

As the pace slows, the one knife swings in a lazy loop while the other one is unholstered from his belt and unwound from around his waist. San yells another 'coming back’.

_ shinbihagodo areumdaweo nun ttel suga eopseo _

_ i modeun geol modeun geol _

He pauses at the half turn, takes a deep breath, exhales. 

_ Love is lookin’ like a zoo _

With the beat, San does two vertical swings, then brings the ropes down by his hips and spins.

_ Yeah it’s lookin’ like a zoo _

He repeats the motion; something easy that the others can follow. They dip out of his way and then out of the line of fire of the more seasoned fighters. Normally, this song would have more aerials, but that would end Ateez’s life in four seconds flat so it looks like if he wants to eat Thai, he’s going to have to knock his red and green friends out. 

_ Oh~ _   
  


San leans back and throws in wide butterfly arcs criss-crossing each other up and down. Wooyoung screams as he falls backwards and out of the way.

The sequence starts the same as before, except now there are two knives to keep track of instead of one. Still, it should be easy enough to keep track of. Yunho tries to push Jongho out of the ring with the top of his scythe, but only accomplishes getting his weapon gem mallet-ed out of his hands. 

_ hwadeuljjak nolla namue olla _

He goes low, then tilts left, then right with the beat. 

_ eoneusae heumppeok igose ppajeo _

With one high kick, he spins into a flip and takes two steps after to stop his motion, immediately reversing his direction. 

_ soneul ppeodeumyeon _

The pirouette comes with two knives spinning quickly overhead in a tight radius. 

_ on sesangi nae geot gata _

_ bareul damgeumyeon _

The knives spin behind his back, San looking over his shoulder. He’s preparing for something, Mingi thinks as he blocks a sword swing. 

_ sumeul naeshwimyeon _

_Pul hyanggiga seumyeowa _

San does two flips, two kicks towards Wooyoung, who frantically scoots back as San stomps _ hard _ in between Wooyoung’s legs.

_ Careful. _His grin says, but then he’s dancing away. 

_sangsanghaetteon sarange ppajin geu sungan_

Mingi blocks behind his back and jabs to buy himself some distance. Yeosang tries to pick him up with an ashitori leg pick but they both fall down instead. On the other side of the field, Hongjoong is trying to pull his weapon out of Wooyoung's claws in a bizarre game of tug-of-war.

_ i modeun geol modeun geol _

San stops in the middle of the field and takes a deep breath. 

_ Love is lookin’ like a zoo _

San lets out a short grunt as he swings his arms forward into the wide vertical arc. Yunho is making good use of his height while redirecting Jongho's swings, but he takes one heck of a hit hit to the rib, and it's then that Wooyoung jumps on him like a an actual cat, but this must be something he does often because Yunho just catches him and tries to throw him out of the ring. Wooyoung holds onto him for dear life and navigates the dancer's body like a jungle gym and somersaults off to safety.

_ cheoeum mannan nasseon sesange _

_ shigan ganeun juldo moreun chae _

The pace change screws up Jongho, who’s so focused on not getting tackled by Wooyoung that he doesn’t even see San’s jump/spin/arc combination coming. The other separate immediately. 

_ I want it you know it ige da mweonji _

Yunho follows a second later as San takes out his feet like a twisted game of jump rope. He whines for a second as he exits the field, but the knife thrower just smiles to himself and picks up the rope to send it back out again. 

_ I want you baby baby _

San's pace slows into a few quarter-turns, and Hongjoong bodyslams a confused Wooyoung out of the field while the later is confused by the pace change. 

_ Ooh-la-la ooh-la-la-la-la-la _

His hand prepares to grab the right rope and swing overhead. 

_ Ne modeun goel _

"COMING BACK!" 

_ tajan gatteon ni soneul jabeun geu sungan _

San clocks Hongjoong on the way up during his diagonal sweep. He rights himself, holds his arms in, then lets go in a drastic increase of his radius which sends the Colors rushing to the ground. 

_ shinbihagodo areumdaweo nun ttel suga eopseo _

_ i modeun geol modeun geol _

In one quick motion, he grabs both ropes in one hand and pulls them in with the other. 

The left knife flies out underhand and hits Mingi square in the shoulder. 

_ Mo! _

The right knife flies out underhand and hits Yeosang in the rib.

_ Deun! _

Sending a wave down the line, San snatches the knife out of the air and throws it with blinding speed sidearm, hitting Seonghwa as he tries to round the play field. 

_ Geol! _

“YES!!!” 

_ Love is lookin’ like a zoo _

San swings the winning weapon above his head in a wide arc, dancing to more decorative moves. Knives fly in beautiful patterns impractical for person-to-person battles, but artistic in their own right. He even sings the long background note under the chorus. 

_Machi hwansangjeogin zoo_

Without the pressure of having to hit the others, his movements are more relaxed and bouncy. He does a backflip which lands in a crouch. The ropes go low, then raise as the song finishes. 

_Oooh~!_

San throws the ropes around so they coil around his waist, hands in the air in a noble finishing pose. 

"VICTORY!!!" The music cuts out from overhead, Jihyo turning out the lights so she can come down and say hi. San crumples to the floor and spreads himself out in a starfish position to catch his breath. He tries to say 'victory' again, but settles for a pant and a fist in the air.

"That was so cool! I can't believe we just did that!" Wooyoung gushes. Mingi tries not to laugh, but it's so _hard _when he's hanging on like an adorable koala, and seriously- he has no business being that cute.

"You guys did well!" 

“Man, what a way to go down... totally didn’t see the sidearm coming.” Seonghwa admits, rubbing his chest. He strips off his arm guard and stretches upwards. Jongho sits down in front of him (their new tradition, apparently) so Seonghwa can help him. 

“So what’s on the menu tonight, Sunshine?” Yeosang strips off the his own plates and lets them fall into a pile around him before helping Hongjoong out of his.

“Hm….” He pretends to ponder it a moment, though he obviously came into Sabotage knowing what he wanted. No one ever came to sabatoge not knowing what they wanted. Mingi’s at least 60% sure he decided it on Wednesday. “I’m feeling Indian. Let’s order takeout.” 

“Neat! You guys ok with that?” Seonghwa asks everyone (but mostly Hongjoong) over Jongho’s head. Heart in his chest, Mingi’s mind sings a symphony in _ oh my god _. Hopefully they didn't feel awkward or obligated or anything, but spending time like this, just as friends eating dinner, feels like a dream come true, someone pinch him. 

“Oh! I didn’t know- I mean, yeah, that’s-- we’re staying for dinner?”

“Only if you want to. We don’t know your plans but you guys can come over to my place and hang out.” Yeosang suggests, “I’ve got a big living room where we can sit and play Jackbox, or we can break out Settlers of Catan if anyone's in the mood to end some friendships.” 

San and Mingi send each other glares, still seeking mutual revenge over Time They Aren’t Supposed to Talk About #33. Yunho, Wooyoung, and Jongho look at Hongjoong, who looks at Manager Xiao, who definitely didn’t sign up to be giving pseudo-parental permission to a group of grown adults, but here he was. 

“I don’t see why not.” He says, eliciting a cheer from the group, “Go have fun, be young. I can bring you back to the dorm later.” 

“You guys probably want to shower. We definitely should.” Seonghwa chuckles, “But if you tell us what you want, we can order and meet you over there?” 

“Sounds good!” Hongjoong smiles as he gets into the van. “See you in a bit!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can probably tell how I feel about my job right now. Also I can't remember how I paced this so yeah. Will fix that at some point.  
I might regret promising this now, but I'm going to go back to my usual update schedule of Fridays at 7:30. Because I am a 'glutton for punishment' as my dad said last Saturday.


	8. TAKE ON ME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ateez and Colors eat dinner together and it turns into WWE smackdown live

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I promised I'd get something out Friday but it's here now so....???  
All of my other chapters have been close to 3.5k words, but what I'm thinking is that I'll write ~2k and update about once a week. Is that something you guys would want? Ir would you rather wait a little longer for longer chapters?

They shower like they’re trying to qualify for the Olympic Men’s 4x100m sprint.

Mingi runs out with his hair still dripping wet as San rushes past him in a towel, which he's at least 40% sure came off _before _he was even fully in the bathroom, which is something he never wants to think about again. Yeosang is in the kitchen keeping himself a safe three feet away from their eldest, who is still in dire need of a scrub, the two arguing over the distinct lack of dishware Yeosang keeps in his cabinets. (“Who am I trying to impress, Seonghwa?! Just let me eat out of my singular dish in peace!” “THAT’S A _ PIE PLATE _!” “AND I’LL EAT OUT OF IT IF I SO DAMN CHOOSE!” )

He sighs. 

_ God _, his friends were so weird. 

Mingi digs through the sparse pile of clothes he’d slowly been leaving at Yeosang’s and picks out a loose green striped shirt and a pair of nearly white jeans that actually managed to contain his thighs without forcing him to walk like a penguin. Seonghwa and Yeosang are arguing about the merits of healthy eating, which means they’ll be occupied for at least another ten continuous minutes (“You’re going to die early!” “You think I can afford to eat well? In this economy?!” “I would feed you if you just came over, but you never do!” “Don’t you bring my hermitude into this if we aren’t going to go into yours too!”), so there’s time to breathe before they demand he come out and help them set up. He opens up his phone’s YouTube to watch their most recent video- the completed version of _ Oh My _with just Mingi and Seonghwa butting weapons- so he can remember how the editing was done before he checks the comments. 

San’s told him not to go looking for trouble in that wild, wild wonderland section, but Mingi’s compulsive about a few things, this being one of them, and he just _ has _to check their channel’s engagement. 

|| >| 1:45/2:10

* * *

Monsta X - Oh My- COLORS (R/B)

1,342,870 views July 11, 2019

Comments (658)

There's a pinned comment at the top, something about picking their next song over in the community tab, though Yeosang is the one who knows how that works since he manages the channel. After that, the highest-voted ones show up at the top, and it’s mainly along the lines of 

>>> That spin at 0:48!!!

Or 

>>>CGI: exists

>>>Blue and Red: We respect it but it ain’t us

And 

>>>THE FLAVOR

And a lot (like _ a LOT _) of them are thirst posts, which is kind of surprising since normally they're covered neck to toe, but their armor and the way their bodies fit in it seems to be a popular topic. Some people are mad about them using so many kpop songs, but he scrolls past them to get to the more constructive criticism. There were some people who went out of their way to be mean, and he didn’t need them in his life. The ones who mattered were the ones who stuck with them; their Rainbows who offered support and advice and enjoyed watching their content as much as the Colors enjoyed making it. One user asks if they can try a parkour version of some songs, which is a pretty good idea so clicks the thumbs up button and screenshots it for later. 

The sound of ‘Take on Me’ rockets through the penthouse, meaning that someone must be waiting at the front door. 

Seonghwa and Yeosang pause their game of outlandish insults to pay for their takeout and tip the delivery person, who probably has no idea why they are the way they are and just wants to get paid and go home. They thank him, set the food down on the counter with a plastic rustle, and resume after a few seconds of trying to remember where they were. 

“Oh yeah! And _ another _thing!” Yeosang’s accusatory pitch brings the avalanche full-back. 

Mingi sighs. He’d better go set up the food before it gets soggy. 

++

Seonghwa walks backwards out of the kitchen while still yelling, lovingly, at Yeosang (“I care about you, stupid!” “And I care about you too! And I can be a nocturnal creature if I want to!” “Dude, NO! You cannot!” “Who said we have to sleep at night, huh?” “Literally everyone!”). It’s San’s turn to dig through the communal closet and probably wear something that isn’t his because what’s the point of going into grandpa mode when Seongwha has impeccable taste in fashion and Yeosang is a thrifting God, and especially when San has conveniently forgotten to return approximately four of Mingi’s favorite soft sweaters. He comes down the steps in a pair of Yeosang’s joggers while pulling Mingi’s [soft rosebud colorblock tee](https://mokuyobi.com/collections/tees/products/rosebud-tee) over his damp mess of hair. 

“What do you still need help with?” he asks (which comes out more like ‘whaddyastnehhewi’).

“Literally everything but if you could put this out by the bin, that would be great.” 

San strongarms the two big bags of trash out the door in a speedy waddle so Yeosang can work on getting his laptop going and his Netflix queued. Mingi is close to starting up a new argument about how there should really be more than one serving spoon because a ladle and a strange spatula are not enough to cover their five trays and three sides, but decides against it when the ‘Take on Me’ doorbell rings again. Mingi moves to let San back inside. The idiot must have left his copy of the keys-

Oh. 

OH

NOT SAN-

“Oh! Hey!” Mingi is stumbling across his words, he knows he is, but his mind is still in Shower Thoughts mode and he needs a new glasses prescription and he is not by any means ready for anything Ateez-related, including but not limited to the fact that Yunho is actually taller than him. “You’re early!” 

Yunho doesn’t say anything at first, which is mildly concerning. He stares at him like he has three heads, Mingi looking down at himself to make sure his shirt isn’t on backwards, which it isn't, and oh, right- it must be quite a shock that he can look like a real-life human sometimes instead of a jacked up Renaissance fair participant. He’s probably just caught off guard at how unnatural it is, like when Disney performers walked around in costume but without their animal heads, which is why he _still_ isn’t saying anything and now Hongjoong is trying to determine whether he needs to intervene or not. Luckily, Yeosang is bringing the laptop with him to the door to spare them any more awkwardness. 

“Hi! I’m glad you found the place! The numbering is weird so I wasn’t sure if you’d have to call me or what. Come on in, food’s on the counter!” 

Jongho stares at Yeosang, and right, yeah- they’ve never seen _ any _of them outside of Colors before. Even if they’d seen one of their few vlogs, it's different up close. He’s wearing a soft pink sweater that gives him sweater paws and will stain horribly if he spills any dinner on himself. 

Yeosang hands them all plates (the ones Seonghwa had magically pulled from some remote corner in Yeosang’s cabinets) (which he would later thank him for) and tells them to dig in, and that San is outside around the corner, I'll get Seonghwa, be right back. 

They fill the silence by trying to figure out which kitchen spices they can recognize, which is embarrassingly few. Seonghwa darts out the shower and into the spare room across the hall in a flash of olive skin and black hair, the eldest having realized as soon as he turned the water off that the noises coming out of the living room were definitely _ not _his members. Luckily, none of the idols see him, and Yeosang and San come thundering down the stairs. They dig in without so much as a second thought, talking while they pile on scoops of curry and rice onto their plates with the random utensils Mingi found, telling them it's fine to just go for it, they've got enough for everyone. Seonghwa emerges a few minutes later, much too late for there to be any more samosas left, with a black and white striped long sleeve and ripped black jeans. Hair falls from where he’s trying to push it back into wet clumps around his eyes. 

“Sorry I’m late to the party. Looks like you guys made good work of these, damn…” He says, a forlorn look aimed at each of the trays. “You leave any for me?”

"You snooze you lose, man." Mingi mumbles around his naan, not even flinching when Seonghwa puts out a foot in a halfhearted attempt to kick him. 

"Whatever. What are we watching?" 

They settle on Bird Box, which Mingi and Wooyoung complain about because Mingi won’t be able to un-traumatize himself for the next five to ten business days and Wooyoung won’t be able to sleep alone for the foreseeable future, but six against two means he’s out of luck and will have to hide behind Yeosang, who’s jumpscare-immune. He nearly spills his food when a loud brass siren booms as the opening credits play. Wooyoung is hiding in San, who clings into Yeosang's side half on top of Mingi, Hongjoong across the table now with Yunho back hugging him and using his shoulder to shield his eyes. The scene opens to a river and a radio transmission, and if there was any hope for Mingi to uncoil himself from the little ball he's in, it's lost now. 

At least it can't get much worse than this... 

++

So. It got a little worse. 

Mingi can’t stop apologizing, and San can’t stop divulging secrets, and it’s not even drunk hours because it’s barely 11:30 and they’d have to rush Seonghwa’s accursed straight-laced body to the hospital if he even got a drop of alcohol in him. Yet here he is screaming across the coffee table to mask the sound of the part of the story where Mingi nearly ended Yeosang’s life when they first met aka Time They’re Not Supposed to Talk About #12. 

“San I swear to the fat baby cherubs I will tell them about the dishwasher incident if you do not stop _ this instant _ .” Migni grunts, simultaneously trying to get out of a headlock and put San in one. Yeosang pulls him off because he _ loves _the way San tells the part about the bowling ball being for science purposes, and the dishwasher incident is one of the classics, so this is like Embarrassing Story Christmas for him. 

“And then you ran from three levels of mall security because you couldn’t find the door!” he howls, “Guy was like superman-” San forces his body into a 70 degree tilt and makes a zooming car noise- “on his segway trying to catch you. And then! And then! And, oh man, the guy on the golf cart was at the bottom of the escalator all sad.” 

“You’re tryna see Jesus _early_!” Mingi goes in for the choke but forgets that he’s fighting a primarily close-range expert and only succeeds in getting put in a guillotine hold. His legs flail pathetically behind him as he tries to wriggle out from his bad decision backwards. 

At least Ateez find his suffering amusing. Wooyoung is a catatonic pile of cuddly puppy boy stuffed with chicken tandoori and lemonade, resting his head on Yunho’s thigh, the dancer sporting what was arguably a five month food baby. Their game of Coup is still on the table- why Seonghwa thought bringing out the board games was a good idea, he’ll never know- frozen in the exact moment that Mingi betrayed San and caused this whole mess. 

“I don’t think I could ever forget that.” Oh great, Yeosang is laughing so hard he’s crying, just what he needs. 

“Why don’t you come over here and let me _ help _you!” 

While Yeosang might have one of the most ruthless mouths around, he was one of the more ticklish members, which Mingi takes advantage of as soon as he grabs hold of a foot, then a leg, then handfuls of soft stomach laid over tensed abs. He doesn’t relent, even as Yeosang yells and starts crying all over again. 

“Jongho! Save me!!!” He pleads in between gasps.

“Jongho, don’t you dare.” Mingi stares him down eye to eye as he reaches back and grabs onto the area of thigh right above Yeosang’s knee and causes him to jump around a fish on land desperate to be back in the water, or in this case, safely away from Mingi. They wrestle on the floor, then on the rug, then on top of Seonghwa, and the high-pitched hyena laugh tapers off into a deadly question.

"Oh my god, do you remember that time? When we were touring and were in Milan?"

"Which time- WOOYOUNG NO-" 

Yunho rolls over to try to put his hands over Wooyoung's mouth, but it's too late- he's already up on the couch crawling away from the long-legged giant. When he gets to the part about them trying to reason with the hotel staff in Spanish not realizing Milan is in Italy, Hongjoong jumps up to tackle him, clearly mortified at the tea being spilled. 

"I THOUGHT WE AGREED NOT TO TALK ABOUT THIS!"

"I MADE NO SUCH PROMISE!!!" 

San starts yelling combat instructions, which only encourages Yeosang to instruct Hongjoong and Mingi to instruct Yunho. 

It's a good thing Yeosang doesn't have neighbors. 

++

Hongjoong tries his very best to buy them as much time as possible, but Manager Xiao texts him at 12:30 saying he’s on the way and will be there in ten minutes, and there’s not much he can do about that. Jongho is sent home with a small container of rice pilaf and biriyani in case he gets hungry on the ride home. 

“Get home safe!” Seonghwa calls from the doorstep. 

“We will! Good night!” 

They wait until they’re out of sight to go back in and clean up. Yeosang brings out the rest of his tupperware collection so divide up the food. They work in silence for a moment, but the question on everyone’s mind bubbles up until it’s Seonghwa who answers it first. 

“I like them. They’re fun to be around.” 

Yeosang jumps into a recap of how Wooyoung won at Coup specifically because he had no idea what he was doing and everyone left him alone, which is kind of unnecessary since he played all of them in real time less than an hour ago. And it’s great that all eight of them get along. It’s like having one big friend group, and it warms Mingi’s heart that they can have that kind of friendship despite only meeting two weeks ago. 

“I never thought this would happen, y’know? I never thought we’d be able to do stuff like this.”

San gives him a knowing smile. “Yeah, I know.” 

They drive back home with only each other and the radio to keep them company. The night is still replaying in his head when he goes home, and it accompanies him in his dreams too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO BETA WE DIE LIKE WOMEN  
Speaking of which, [NB:DLM](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22083727) and [Centerfold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21801349) should have an update soon


	9. LOST IN AMERICA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yunho POV covering C8's events and their teaser videos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm seeing Ateez on April 17th and I'm just asdfghjkl I'm so excited--

Manager Xiao needs to talk business with Jihyo, so he drops them off in the vicinity of where Google Maps tells him Yeosang’s apartment is and tells them to call if they need to be picked up. They slip through the door in the black metal gate and take giant steps to avoid crushing the plant life in the mounds leading to the sidewalk.

It’s a really nice place. Like super nice. Like ‘ casual millionaire homes’ nice. Parts of the building are sticking out in blocks that give it an abstract geometric sort of look with each section either grey, white, or wooden brown. Clean lines and spotless black-framed windows lay in a perfect line down the row, and though the blinds are drawn on every single one, it feels like the residents are judging them for daring to walk in such a place. It makes him wonder what kind of person Yeosang is outside of Colors, and if ‘graphic designer’ was just a cover for a job with entertainment powerhouses or celebrities.

It’s quiet here. Yunho’s footsteps are still too loud despite his active attempt to make himself quieter. Wooyoung’s usual chatter sounds like a shout in the middle of the void. The only noise is from the fountain in the center of the complex and the wildlife in the forest behind it. The numbers go up and up until they reach a corner, where there’s a large staircase and a placard reading ‘200-250’.

“230…. 240.... 250… It’s gotta be this one, right?” Hongjoong points

“Only one way to find out.”

Jongho rings the doorbell, but instead of the usual chime, they hear a guitar and a familiar piano solo.

_Take on me_  
_Take me on_  
_I’ll be gone~_

Hongjoong has to physically cover Jongho’s mouth to stop him from singing. The neighbors probably wouldn’t appreciate that so late at night-

“Oh! You’re early!” Yunho turns.

Mingi has Harry Potter Glasses.  
Mingi has Harry Potter Glasses and a green shirt that is this close to being a crop top and a smattering of dark spots across his cheeks that adds to his doe-like expression when he sees them on the front stoop, clearly not expecting them, and oh no, _God_, no, Yunho is having a Moment.

Indian takeout wafts through the door, Jongho’s stomach growling behind him, shit, he should be moving, but he doesn’t know what to do with himself, he’s just staring like an idiot and can’t un-idiot himself. Mingi sends a questioning look at Hongjoong and his shirt moves to show a thin band of summer-tanned skin and oh geat, now Yeosang is coming to the rescue-

“Hi! I’m glad you found the place!” His laptop is propped up on his hip like a baby. “The numbering is weird so I wasn’t sure if you’d have to call me or what. Come on in, food’s here!”

Right, yeah, made it, ok. Hongjoong elbows him in the side as he leapfrogs ahead.  
Focus. He can do this.

++

They put on Bird Box because they didn’t want to admit that they’re actually all chickens, and he supposes that this was what it was like to be ‘normal’ in every sense of the world. Idols lived in little oblong terrariums with 10,000 hands eager to prune and 870,000 sets of bluelight eyes watching them in the dark. But it’s different here. He’s not sure what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t San stealing food off of Yeosang’s plate and then Yeosang taking a big gulp of San’s orangina that he got from the specialty shop next to his office. San yells something but it looks ridiculous with his chipmunk cheeks. Mingi yells something about him being a heathen. Seonghwa tells them to behave, children, to which they respond ‘yes mom’ and have to scramble to avoid being pinched.

They’re comfortable to be around. It’s easy to let go. Yunho’s met a startling number of idols who only have performing on their mind to the near-exclusion of everything else, and it makes for an awkward few weeks of them trying not to stand too close to one another the way strangers on an elevator did. Their paper-thin personalities fly away compared to the whirlwind that is Colors. The way Mingi, Seonghwa, San, and Yeosang discuss the best survival strategies if they were to be dropped in with Sandra Bullock during the apocalypse; Jongho nearly breaking the table when he panic-slammed his fist at the supermarket scene; Hongjoong trying to burrow his way through Seonghwa when the group of bandits comes and Tom fights them off- it just feels like another night at the dorm after a long day of schedules. It’s far too easy to imagine what life would be like if they were a group of eight instead of four, though it’s a little more difficult to place the emptiness he’ll feel when they inevitably part ways.

But it’s probably a good thing that they aren’t one big cohort- otherwise they’d be the definition of pandemonium.

++

Yunho gets put on involuntary damage control because Wooyoung, though he acted like an innocent baby most of the time, paid extreme attention to detail and had the memory of several thousand-year-old tortoises put together. Hongjoong is yelling about how they have an image to uphold, and Yunho is yelling at San and Yeosang to stop egging him on, and the rest of them are just yelling in different flavors of encouragement and disbelief. They can probably never return after tonight, if they survive. When Manager Xiao pulls up out front, he’s a little sad to be leaving, but relieved that their chaos will be stemmed. The Colors wave them off and they’re back on the road.

Jongho mumbles about how much he likes doing something so different and how much energy San and Mingi brought to the table, like having an extra Wooyoung and Yunho around. He likes the change, and while it isn’t fair that Jongho has to be forced into the mold of a perfect idol at such a young age, he can at least relax and open up here in the dark. He falls asleep in the car and Yunho carries him back to his room. Wooyoung is in the limbo state between awake and in a deep sleep, leaning against Hongjoong until the leader tosses him into bed. If he had any more energy, he’d try to get the singer into actual pajamas, but Hongjoong is ready to pass out because even he has limitations.

“G’NIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGHHHHHT!” Yunho yells with his face half smushed into his pillow.

No one is awake to respond.

++

“Come on, Woo, you gotta get up, we gotta-” Yunho’s jaw involuntarily shoots downward in a long, long yawn. This isn’t the earliest they’ve had to wake up, but they’ve beaten the sunrise about ten times in a row now. He tries again to pick Wooyoung up, though he keeps slipping out of his arms like a slinky. “We- we gotta go. We’re supposed to be outside by 6:30.”

Wooyoung rolls out of his grasp and further into his cocoon of blanekts. “Nnnnnnggghhhhh…”

“You won’t be breakfast-” _Come on, Yunho, words, you can do those_, “You won’t have time to eat breakfast if you don’t get going now. We’re doing a game thing today. You gotta eat.”

“Eat in the car…” He sounds like a petulant two-year-old as opposed to a fully-grown and almost legal adult.

“We’ve got weapon training later. You won’t be able to keep up with San if you’re starving.”

Wooyoung gazes back at him with shadows under his eyes that even the makeup artists will have trouble covering. He’s a sorry sight to behold, and though they would all love to climb back into their beds and catch up on those extra hours of sleep they spent instead on hanging out last night, schedules were schedules. They knew that this would happen.

It doesn’t make it hurt any less.

Two hours in and he’s running smoothly on the power of caffeine and his own sheer willpower, but by the time they’ve reached hour four and Jongho starts drifting off while pulling things out of his backpack, he knows they’re fighting a losing battle. The second Hongjoong tries to play dizzy bat he goes careening into a wall and while it’s all fun and games now, it’s not the kind of thing he wants to be feeling at 11am. Once the recording ends, there’s time for a quick 30-minute power nap but not much else since they're due for dance lessons that afternoon and need to squeeze a concept review in between. 

They eat lunch together. Not like they don’t do everything together, but being in America means that they’re out of their element, and the only way to find some sense of familiarity is to cling to one another. Wooyoung holds Yunho’s and Jongho’s hands when they walk outside in public (Yunho is pretty sure large crowds make him nervous) while all of them follow behind Hongjoong, who’s trailing a good two steps behind Manager Roy. They slip in and out from the car to the next building to wherever else they have to go, not daring to stay outside longer than they have to to limit the chances of being spotted. Minhyuk-ssi from Advertising and Marketing has a portable projector he uses to show the mockups of the new concept, which will be a dark theme to combat the warm summery feel from Wave. They have lots of dark colors and shadows and Minhyuk looks way too excited while mentioning the pyrotechnics unit and the entire marching band all gung-ho about playing for them in the background. Yunho just wants to eat in peace, but at least this time, he doesn't have any qualms about their outfit choices and can munch away while Minhyuk-ssi shows the test shots from the florist they've partnered with. 

With their quick meal over, another manager corrals them downstairs to greet the instructor for today; a visiting dancer from Europe. He asks if they're ready in a thick accent, to which they all reflexively say 'yes'. Yunho takes a long sip from the energy drink he's hidden in his second canteen. He just has to focus on getting as much as he can out of this and keep going. 

++

Yunho takes the first ten minutes of the car ride to mentally prepare himself, though he drifts off to sleep sometime between when they passed the sign for the museum and the exit for the main highway. He comes to as Manager Xiao rolls the van across the gravel and parks them next to the gold Toyota Highlander with a dent in the passenger door.

“We’re here.” The words come out almost like an admission, Yunho looking around at the familiar open field and blue sky.

“You are correct.” Manager Xiao is already unclipping his seat belt so he can open the door from the outside and help them out.

The volume on the overhead speakers is lower than usual, sending out waves of some peaceful [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rsq5NOxz_U) Yunho has never heard. San is practicing a 180 jump out back in the mini-playfield. Mingi is on the floor with Yeosang, the former resting an arm over his eyes while he’s being stretched out. The daily hello's take place without a hitch. So far, so good.

“Good afternoon! Take a seat, we’ll do the debrief in a minute.”

Hongjoong doesn’t need to be told twice to lay down, but he does need to be shaken every once in awhile to make sure he doesn’t fall asleep. He groans in frustration each time Yunho taps him back to reality, though Seonghwa seems to take pity on him because midway he tells him to leave him be, and that it isn’t a big deal, and if they wanted to nap for a bit, it was ok because he needs to have a chat with his members anyway. Seonghwa gives them an extra ten minutes, but Mingi and Yeosang are back from team stretching and San has nailed his jump a few times in a row, which means it’s time to start for real.

“So according to Jihyo and Xiao, we’ll be getting your song and making the choreo in a few weeks, which means we need to do bookkeeping on our end.” Seonghwa leans on his axe, “You’ll have to pick specific shades of your colors once we make the new banner for our Twitter and YouTube accounts, but we can worry about that later- the choreography part always takes the longest. That means that now is the time to sort out the teaser trailers.”

"You don't need to suit up today since we're just splitting off into pairs to talk. Sound good?”

With the affirmation, San drags Wooyoung away to chat, Yeosang crouching down to where Hongjoong is still on the floor. Jongho fully does the 'oh thank goodness' sigh. He knows they’re doing this because it doesn’t take a genius to see how clearly exhausted they all are. It stings at his pride that he isn't physically or mentally strong enough to push through this the way he would have as a trainee, but the act of mercy is still appreciated. Mingi rests his spear down beside them, one leg out, leaning back on his arms as though this were the beach and not an old warehouse in the middle of a grassy field. 

"So! Do you know which song you might like to do?" Ah, right… there was mention of promo teasers, but between the early mornings and the wracking of his brain to come up with raps, Yunho completely forgot to pick.

"No, not yet." It was better to be honest in situations like this. The only place exaggeration could end in is trouble. 

Mingi shrugs. “No worries, it's hard to pick. What kinds of songs have you been listening to recently?”

The words come out so casually that he forgets that this is technically still business and not a off-the-records conversation with his friend. Yunho reaches out to dig in his bag for his phone to show rather than try explaining, but stops. Music was something special to him- a part of him. The songs he listened to were a reflective surface which anyone could look into and see the waking dreams he was made of. No matter what, Yunho would always be an avid supporter of people listening to whatever made them happy, but it did open him up to criticism.

Then again....

Mingi didn't seem like the judgmental type. He's shown that he's a generally decent person, and he's never pushed beyond what they were comfortable with. When it comes down to it, Yunho trusts him. 

He grabs his phone. 

"I've been into a couple of things..." 

++

They spend the last hour blocking their basic pair choreography, and while Yunho still isn’t sure what song he wants, he’s relieved to have it narrowed down to three options with two similar concepts. With their matching height, they could do a sort of ‘warring blues’ theme with Yunho as the light version of Mingi (or Mingi as the dark version of Yunho) (‘whatever floats your boat, man’ he’d said, and Yunho suggested leaving it up to their fans to decide, and Mingi had an expression as though he’d just heard some premium tea) (yes, Yunho knows what that means). Alternatively, they could do a team fight. Mingi expressed wanting to try a parkour-type video as an experiment, and based on their audience's reception, they could try it too. They aren't sweating like usual, and it doesn't feel like he's going to collapse while doing cool down stretches. They hang up their weapons in the storage room and do a triple check to make sure they aren't forgetting anything. 

“Hey,” Mingi looks softer somehow, even in his armor and flowing robe, or maybe it was just Yunho’s vision blurring the hard edges, “Get some rest, ok? You worked hard.”

A hand rests on his shoulder, squeezing in comfort and reassurance and all Yunho can do is accept the confused and happy and touched swirls of warmth seeping out of his chest.

He nods.

“I will, Mingi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want this to be the Year I Get Stuff Done so I'm going to be updating this on the weekends. Can I be any more specific than that? No, but I can guarantee that if you check here Monday morning, there will be an update unless I write a placeholder.  
Let's get this bread!!!
> 
> If you guys have any ideas for Yunho's/Jongho's/Hongjoong's/Wooyoung's teaser videos, let me know!


	10. DISSOLVE ME

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingi has a lot of car thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for everyone's patience! This is a sort of bridge chapter- we'll have a lot more action in C11!

Hunky Dory needs to go to the shop, though when Mingi is going to get around to doing that is anyone’s guess. There were some benefits to buying a car parked on the side of the freeway with a sign saying ‘$2500 to a good home’ in the windshield. 

This was not one of them. 

Usually the concerning sounds and squeaky brakes weren’t an issue because San drove them to work in the morning, partially because he drove faster and also because his car was from this decade. It saved on gas and on the occasions when they dropped by Anzu’s house, they got to bypass traffic in the carpool lane. 

But this one-car deal also means he needs San to drive him to the dealership. 

“Where to first?” The engine of the black Jeep Wrangler rumbles to life. 

Mingi types in the information onto his phone so they Google Maps their way to the shop instead of relying on their combined -2 navigational skills. Arm partially hanging out the window, he can properly rest his head on the sill to watch the flowers and trees float past him as they cruise left, right, left, left out of their neighborhood and onto the main road. The light hits his face from between the shadows of large buildings, and he’s thankful that California has a sun that never really sets, and that the temperature doesn't go much below 50 degrees at any point of the year. He can just enjoy the ride and let his thoughts float where they may. 

Ateez has some sort of meeting or training or weird idol-thing that they have to do in the morning, so they won’t be around until 5pm or so, meaning they have a solid six hours to get things done before they have to set up the warehouse. He knows that San has been trying to nail a triple spin for the past few days (and subsequently knocking over all of their fixtures in their bathroom) and Seonghwa has been working on a fortified armor set so he doesn’t break anything when Jongho inevitably whacks him a little harder than intended. Yeosang is caught up with writing the movement scripts for the camera, and that’s outside of his own job and coordinating his dance with Hongjoong, which reminds Mingi that he still needs to talk to Yunho about his song and nail down their plans. 

_ Aish, too much to do, never enough time… _

Three months felt long conceptually, but they were already into their third week and it felt like only yesterday they were being introduced. Of the remaining 9 weeks, at least four of them would be spent choreographing their main dance, and another two would be for recording. They’d probably have to get up at some obscure hour between really late at night and really early in the morning so they could limit the number of people who saw them, though there were an absurd number of people who woke up early just to exercise. And that was assuming everything went well and they could finish an eight-person dance in the time it usually took to coordinate four. 

_ Use the _

_ Left lane _

_ To merge onto _

_ Route 101 _

They have a few basic sequences they can throw out there- it isn’t like when they were just starting out and had no videography skills and no idea how to fight. The slow songs get long, graceful swings while fast-paced songs got more kicks and short swings, etcetera, etcetera, and that’s how it’s been for all of their videos, but it’s the tying of the moves together to fit the song which made it an art form. It truly was like dancing- Mingi’s dad was (is? He teaches down at the rec center on Wednesdays and Sundays) a dancer and that’s how he learned most of his moves.

_ In _

_ 200 feet _

_ Take Exit _

_ 9 _

_ On the right _

Sometimes his dad comes and visits, but he has his own job, his own social biome, and the phone calls here and there are enough to get by on so they don’t have to do the four hour trip. Oh boy… when was the last time he called his mom? 

It's been a while since they've seen their families. All in adulthood, he supposes. 

Sometimes San’s grandparents make the trek, and San will wait patiently at the train station until the same car they always take pulls right up to the dock. He’ll stand there with an arm outstretched while his grandmother comes out after all the people in too much of a rush to notice them scurry away, and she’ll remark how strong her baby has grown while his grandfather yells _ ‘WHAT?!’ _ because he never remembers to put in his hearing aid. Grandpa and Grandma Choi insist that Mingi, Yeosang, and Seonghwa call them that, and they get a little nervous watching their performances (especially when they’re doing the throws) though they’re always supportive and show off their official and unofficial grandchildren every Friday at their local game night.

He’s never seen Seonghwa’s parents, but apparently they lapse into lightspeed Satoori within 20 seconds of getting on the phone, so he supposes he isn’t missing out on much. Seonghwas got a few brothers who are out in the world with their own careers being functioning members of adult-land, and they have their own group chat where they send each other memes and call each other very creative names. Apparently they have a treasure hunt at the annual family gettogether each summer and the prize is a whole container of his aunt’s kimchi, which he can only describe as Really Freakin’ Good. Yeosang tags along to those events too, and to Christmas and Thanksgiving because his parents are still in Korea. He doesn’t talk about them that much.

_ In _

_ 500 feet _

_ Your destination _

_ Is on the right _

“Yo, is that it?” San’s voice jolts him back to reality. He hadn’t even noticed he was drifting off. He squints at the awning now 450 feet ahead, though it’s not like he can see it. His eyesight is pretty horrible, and the only way he’ll see it is if they’re right underneath it. He squints harder. “Dude… Mingi…” 

“Nah, I don’t think so.” He decides, looking at the faint letters, still trying to figure out if that’s a B or a P at the front. San turns off his blinker and tries to figure out where in the world they’re supposed to go. 

_ Recalculating _

“MINGI!!!” 

++

Really it starts as a car hunt, but between the second and third locations, Mingi loses patience and San's stomach starts yelling at him, so they stop at a Chipotle and get lunch. He has a folder full of business cards and sentences he doesn’t understand that could be written in much simpler terms if the salespeople weren’t so intent on keeping them in the dark. 

Oh, and the info sheets on a couple CRV’s. That’s important too. 

“What do you think we’re gonna get?” San asks around a mouthful of burrito. Mingi is still ripping away the foil to give himself a nice handle. 

“What do you mean?” He digs in and barely stops himself from groaning. Chicken? On a day like today? Heck yeah. 

“You know their music best. What kind of song do you think they’ll give us?” 

Chiptole sells bottles of fruity soda, the same kind that they used to sell in their middle school until the healthy eating programs rolled out. It twists open with a snap and a _ fzzzzt _. “Who knows? I know Wooyoung said that they wanted to go darker than Hala Hala, but I don’t know if that’s what we’ll get this time.” 

“Ah, cool cool. What’s Hala Hala?”

Mingi’s mouth drops. He’s on his phone and in his YouTube a second later, propping it up against the napkin tin. 

“We have a lot of catching up to do.” 

++

They sit on the bench together, San in a weird state of disbelief because these people he’s seeing on screen are people he’s been weapon dancing with. People he’s been _ teaching _. When they go in that afternoon, Hongjoong is almost[ falling asleep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mowozlG6Abo), Jongho is already asleep, and Yunho is wearing a hardened stare that hurts Mingi whenever he glances at him, so they decide to get the less physically demanding logistics out of the way and leave the fighting for another time.

And it might be his imagination, but he could swear that San starts blushing when Wooyoung describes what he wants to do for his song. 

++

Whenever San gets the urge to dye his hair, there’s no stopping him. He meticulously researches and pins and scribbles in the margins of his whichever miscellaneous notebook he’s working through that month, which makes it easy to anticipate when he’s going to inevitably ask for Mingi’s help. 

“I need to _ not _be this color.” The pile of hair care products littered across the kitchen table welcoming Mingi home after his trip to 7-11 made that abundantly clear, though the tone of San’s voice makes it sound like this is now or never, which he really hopes it isn’t because he had a sweet date lined up with Netflix and a box of chicken. He tries to sidestep into the hall. Maybe if he asks the right question, San will go into a recounting of all the colors he’s been, and that will be enoguh of a distraction for Mingi to flee the scene. 

“What color are you gonna do next?” 

A devious glint flashes in his eyes. 

“Glad you asked.” 

Mingi suddenly regrets everything. 

++

The black splotches creeping up Mingi’s arms make him look like he just walked out of the woods after a demon summoning and he’s said demon. San’s hair is now black minus a little patch he insisted on keeping white 'for reasons'. Mingi told him he looked like a pie chart and took a picture to send to all his friends on Snapchat, and San socked him in the arm for it. 

Now with one bruised shoulder and two stained hands, he’s trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while their boss holds what is arguably the most boring financial quarter update in the history of updates (though he’s not sure how others compare because he’s never had to sit through one before). It’s the definition of what kids thought being a working adult was like and he hates it. It doesn’t even make sense why he’s there because he’s technically from operations and they don’t deal with that kind of mumbo-jumbo. 

The only redeeming quality about the meeting is that they ordered lunch and have free snacks on the table, and nothing tastes quite as good as free food. Mingi jumps up the second that they finish the closing thank you’s to snag a glazed chocolate donut plus a strand of grapes for himself and San’s favorite French Cruller with a cup full of strawberries and makes out like a bandit. 

San isn’t in his shared office, but that’s ok. He probably got caught up afterwards talking to the people from the other departments who seemed to be living vicariously through him. Mingi has his laptop and is scrolling through the latest helpdesk tickets. He manages to sort out Contracting’s USB issue (the device won’t work if it’s in a high-speed port) and Marketing’s HDMI issue (“Sir that is not- Sir, don’t put that in there”) before he hears the click of the door handle and perks up. 

Euro-hyung- _ Lars _\- comes in with a coffee in hand. 

Mingi takes his feet off the couch. 

“Oh, um… Good afternoon!” 

Maybe it’s just a European thing, but he’s always well dressed. He’s well put together overall with his button up and a black and gold watch weighing down his left wrist, just above the rolled-up cuff. He’s tall in the way that guys from Iceland are, yet his clothes fit around his frame perfectly. Lars smells like cologne. The expensive kind. 

“Hello Mingi, how are you?”

“Um…” he holds up his grapes and the remaining half of his donut. “Can’t complain.” 

"That’s good. I wanted to catch up, say hi, but you left so quickly." 

Well... that's embarrassing. Mingi kind of wants to run into the back room and scream for a minute, but instead he ups the ante. 

“Meetings aren't really my jam.” 

“I completely understand. San said you guys have been busy?” 

"A little bit, yeah..." 

If Lars is anything, he's polite. He listens and makes noises of vague interest while Mingi gives him a rundown of what they've been up to, minus the involvement with Ateez. Even though he hasn't been expressly instructed not to talk about them, it still feels like he'd be betraying friends if he did, and that's enough to keep his mouth shut.

Luckily, he doesn't have to wait long for San to show up and take both control of the conversation and the donut out of Mingi's hand. He flops on top of him, sharp elbows and all, launching into the retelling of all the things he'd just heard while Ximena, the boss from Design, was in the board room. Lars laughs and tells them has to jump on a phone call in a little bit, but that it was nice catching up with him. 

"You've got a weird hyung, you know that?" Mingi remarks once he finally manages to push his catlike friend onto the couch beside him. 

"Yeah, I know, but man, you'll never believe what happened on the last project..." San rambles, jumping back into his story about the most recent metaphorical fire they had to extinguish. By the time anyone comes by and tells them they need to get back to work, Mingi's all but forgotten about the odd exchange, but lets it go. It probably wasn't anything anyway. 

++

He feels less guilty about accidentally whacking Yunho since today, Ateez is more awake and seem to be having fun with training. Yunho twists himself back and forth with his scythe while they finish up stretching. Yunho finally chose his song and they need to start doing full performance top to bottom so they’re ready. When he showers that night, it feels even more satisfying knowing they made so much progress. San pokes him in the arm with a cool piece of metal while he’s in the middle of his skincare routine. 

“Yo, your phone buzzed while you were in there.” 

He thanks him, indicating to just leave it on the counter, he’ll get it in a minute, he’s a little preoccupied with the suds dripping down his elbows. Mingi dabs on his creme, covers his face in moisturizer, scowls at the dark acne scars on his cheeks, and picks up his phone. 

_ Today, 10:10pm _

XXXXXX1107: Hi Mingi, I hope you're doing well! I had a question if you have a moment?

XXXXXX0809: Sure! What's up? 

XXXXXX1107: I was watching an old video and saw that Seonghwa was called 'Vermillion Red'

I was wondering how that worked

“What is it?” San pops into the bathroom to brush his teeth and bask in the post-shower warmth. He peeks over the shoulder to get a look at his screen. 

“Hongjoong saw Seonghwa’s intro vid where we named his specific shade, and was wondering- _oh my god we forgot to pick shades_.” Mingi swipes his phone and types out his response. 

_XXXXXX0809:_ Oops haha we probably should have done that earlier. Each color has a specific name and hex code

_XXXXXX0809:_ Mine is Midnight Blue, I think San's is Sunshine Yellow

_XXXXXX0809:_ Sangie changed his like five different times It might be Crocodile green? 

Mingi’s phone buzzes with a notification from the group chat, a message from Yellow to Group: **Best Bois** reading ‘Yo what’s everyone’s shade’. San doesn’t look up, and he doesn’t see Mingi staring at him with the most amazed 'damn, that's _my_ friend' look. Seonghwa responds in an instant with his hex number FF1A1A, while Yeosang responds with his shade. 

_Today, 10:19pm_

_XXXXXX0809:_ Forget I said that, it's Juniper Green I just checked

_XXXXXX1107:_ That’s really cool! Are there any rules to picking? 

_XXXXXX0809:_ Nope! As long as you pick it for yourself

_ XXXXX1107: _ Sounds good. I think Wooyoung has already picked his haha

_XXXXXX1107:_ Anyway, we'll pick and let you guys know

_XXXXXX1107: _Thanks!

Mingi's heart leaps just imagining what Colors they'll pick, and how it'll look once they're all lined up together. He opens his phone again and texts back. 

_XXXXXX0809:_ No problem. Goodnight! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise your hand if you found the secret plot point that will come back to haunt us  
I have a Spectre and using it with Sketchbook actually isn't that bad???  
I'll be doing a moodboard for Seonghwa and Yeosang, so stay tuned for that!


	11. WORK THIS BODY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a jump to the left and then a step to the right, I put my hands on my hips and brought my knees in tight  
And that’s how I found a major timeline error from Chapter 3

Mingi doesn’t even bring out all of his spears- he already knows which song is going to play before Jihyo leaves to queue it up. San gets in these moods where he blasts one song continuously for days until he gets it out of his system and as much as Mingi is tolerant of [Walk the Moon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UYi5naMsfg), his patience only spans so far until he gives up.

  
One knife spins in fast vertical loops in time with the piano chords while the others pick their weapons.

_ It was a strange place and a tender age, I was just a babe in school _

The second knife comes in in double time. Seonghwa returns with his wireframe axe, Yeosang grabbing his short, thinner rapier blade. The rest of Ateez stay on the edge of the play field as the blades spin tight arc up and down. 

_ Yeah it’s just a matter of time, honey, it’s just a matter of time _

_And I will work this body, I will burn this flame _

San’s arcs are getting longer now, and they’re noticeably more haphazard. The lack of coordination between his blades and the song show how into it he’s getting. 

_I’m a workaholic and I swear, I swear _

_ One day I will beat you fair and square _

_ Yeah! _

In a burst of energy, San crosses the field with a barrel roll and a low arc, forcing everyone to jump. Wooyoung uses the motion to get inside of Jongho’s radius and tries to shove him out. They run, jump, run around the bend behind where Mingi is fighting Yeosang. When he gets like this, San tends to traverse the field more often, similar to the way he would do chores with his headphones on and dance. 

_ Que ferais-tu? _

Mingi takes a deep breath to recover. This is going to be one of the matches that relies more on the players staying on their toes than anything. He swaps directions and spins his spear.

_ It’s no matter of ‘if’, honey, it’s just a matter of when _

When San is enjoying himself, he doesn’t pay attention to who is where and who does or doesn’t get hit. He’s just in the moment, pure happiness, dancing the night away. 

_They'll be getting in line_

_ Yeah it's just a matter of time, honey, it's just a matter of time _

Run, jump- the knives change from a close 2 foot radius to the full 8. Yunho and Jongho get hit immediately and leave the field. They give each other the ‘what was that’ and ‘I have no idea’ looks, respectively. 

_I’m a workaholic and I swear, I swear _

_ One day I will beat you fair and square _

_ Yeah! _

San sings along at full volume. 

_ Show me what you got _

With a one-two backwards, he crouches low and does a one-legged spin. The swing of his outer leg lets him face the other direction. Hongjoong jumps out of the way and nearly takes himself out of the play field but shifts away from danger. 

_ C'mon meet me on the court _

Mingi’s heard the song enough times to know he has 10, maybe 15 seconds of rest at most. If he doesn’t make use of the time before San starts doing insane, unavoidable moves, his advantage over knowing the song will have been for nothing. He does a spin around his back, a quarter turn, then a baseball swing to knock Yeosang’s sword out of his hands, and carries the unarmed man out of bounds. 

The drums get louder overhead signalling that _ it’s time to go _. Mingi runs back out to the edge of the field opposite Seonghwa, who has by now realized he needs to take cues from Mingi. The knives whirl around them and Wooyoung gets hit in the leg as he tries to leap over a cord. There’s a pirouette somewhere in the middle of the up-down aerials, and Hongjoong accidentally steps out of the field with a startled and disappointed gasp. Mingi lands his sequence and ducks. 

San bounces his knives against the floor, catches them, and lets out a howl.

The music overhead breaks, then shuffles again. San is doing flips and headbanging at the same time which shouldn’t be possible but it _ is _ and they take a tumble down out of the way. Seonghwa is completely focused on not getting hit, and if Mingi were any closer, he could probably throw him out of the ring, but he’d have to cross paths with San which is just asking for trouble. They hit the ground.

In the two-beat silence, Mingi rolls over and onto his feet. 

He and Seonghwa make eye contact. 

_ And I will work this body I will burn this flame _

_ Oh in the dead of night, and in the pouring rain _

Only one left, and he’s determined to have fried chicken for dinner. Mingi underhand-swings his spear and catches in between the spokes of the axe, but it doesn’t dislodge it like he’d hope. They carefully disconnect from one another to avoid being hit and having to eat Chinese takeout for the seventeenth time that year. Seonghwa comes towards him with a spin around the waist which he counters with a series of jabs. They both do the matrix to avoid being clocked in the head.

_ Yeah, I'm a workaholic and I swear, I swear _

_ Yeah, and one day I will beat you fair and square _

_ Yeah! _

The end of the song is so abrupt that it leaves an odd void in the warehouse. The cords re-coil themselves around his waist, San with his hands up in the most blissful victory pose possible. For the first time since the song started, he takes a good look at the status of the rest of the players. Yeosang is doing the 'Lord have mercy' walk around the perimeter. Mingi is laying face down on the play field.

“That…. Was… that was..._ so much _.” Seonghwa pants. Maybe he went a little overboard at the butterfly section, but San couldn’t care less that he lost.

Wooyoung taps the knife thrower on the shoulder. “So... what do you do if more than one person makes it?”

Oh right, they still don't have a winner. It isn't San since he didn't eliminate everyone, so now they have to go to round two. He sends back a knowing look. 

“Just wait. You’re gonna love this.” 

++

The first time it happened, San and Yeosang had rock-paper-scissored until they had a victor, but since then they’d used the Thunderdome approach. It involved a one-on-one deathmatch in a circle of people. With the use of six-foot poles and three-foot swords as oppose to someone with a rolled-up sock, they instead put up little orange cones.

“IT’S TIME TO DUEL!” Yeosang, the unofficial referee today, does a chopping motion and immediately runs away. 

Seonghwa spins his axe to get +5 intimidation points. 

Mingi needs to stay on his toes. He might have height over Seonghwa, but Seonghwa is smart about his movements and tries to force his opponents into positions where they _ have _to do a certain move in order to avoid losing. Then, he uses the appropriate counter move to get a critical hit. He needs to strike first to prevent Seonghwa from taking control of the match. 

He charges forward with his spear back to get a reflexive move out of the axeweilder. Seonghwa has a reverse grip and goes for an upward swing which gives Mingi a good position to do a figure 8 around the head, which Seonghwa does a counterclockwise spin to get out of. The ribbons on the end of the spear wave around as he does a jump and downward strike. Seonghwa side steps to get to a more favorable position and goes for a jab, which is met with a backhand swing and uh oh, it isn’t looking good- the arc leaves him with only one hand on his weapon, and Seonghwa has an open shot at him. If he doesn’t think of something soon, he’ll be toast for sure. 

_ Screw it, I’ve got this _

He loosens his grip on his spear and lets it fly off to the side, rushing forward and tackling Seonghwa, and suddenly he’s flying because Seonghwa has used the hitakikomi slap down to throw Mingi out of the field with his own momentum. It doesn't hurt much physically, but it does do a number on his pride to have been beaten with a strategy like that. It's been a while since Seonghwa's won a round, so he's probably overjoyed to be able to pick the cuisine for this week. It's already been over a month which means they'll be getting the song soon, which means every moment of their time together will be geared towards choreo practice. Who knows- they might not be able to have team dinners like this for a while. 

So yeah, it's good that Seonghwa won.

"Who's ready for barbecue?" 

++

Seonghwa’s knee bounces all the way from the warehouse to town, and it bounces faster on the way back. It takes his entire willpower to not tear open the bag right away, though he’d have to fight Hongjoong for the goods since they were entrusted to him. The second they get in, the eight of them dig into their mountains of food with alarming speed. After a long day, what could be better than good food and good company? Yeosang juggles his laptop and his pasta. 

“Could you pass me that?” he snaps twice and points to the HDMI attached to the TV.

“Yeah no pr- YOU’RE DONE AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME?!” San grabs both of the swordsman’s shoulders and shakes him back and forth. This is probably _ why _Yeosang didn’t tell him in the first place- their Yellow’s excitement levels always rocketed through the roof when big videos like these were ready. 

“I only finished them yesterday. Besides- now we can watch the videos here while we eat dinner.” 

A few seconds and technical difficulties later, the tiny preview screens from Yeosang’s program take over the screen. He can easily recognize the video they posted from Oh My and the versions of LA Devotee that never quite worked out. But when he doesn’t immediately start loading one of the four new videos, the Colors begin staring holes into him. 

"Yeosang, if you don't play the video within the next twenty seconds I am literally going to explode. Is that what you want??? You’ll have San-chunks all over _ you _ , all over your _ equipment- _”

"Wait before you explode let's get on the roof, then you can become human fireworks-" An arm goes up as he leans away from San's raised fist, laughing as it comes down on his shoulder. 

"_ YEOSANG! _" 

“Fine, fine, Mr. Impatient. Ready?” The entire room shouts a unanimous ‘YES!’. “Here we go….” 

++

⏸️ ⏭️ 🔉 0:00/1:12

* * *

Ariana Grande - [7 Rings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYh6mYIJG2Y) \- COLORS (Y/P)

The frame opens with the familiar COLORS logo, the letters shining first in bright gold, then a deep purple. The bells play in the background as the camera moves from above San to in front of him. His front hand stays low while his other remains by his face, knife drawn. 

_ Breakfast at Tiffany’s and bottles of bubbles _

The gold of his outfit contrasts against the darkness of the garage. The sky is just starting to lighten and the artificial lighting gives the scene a gritty feel. 

_ Buy myself all of my favorite things _

He remembers San leaving the house at some obscure time in the night. It must have been so he could meet up with Wooyoung and film his segment. The camera pulls back to show the larger garage and at first, he doesn’t see it, but the second Wooyoung’s blurred figure in the shadows awakens from its slumber, he can’t tear his eyes away.

_ Write my own checks like I write what I sing _

At this point, San senses him, whipping out a knife to block Wooyoung’s claw strike coming down from his perch. The tight black outfit is going to be a hit with Atiny, Mingi just knows it. He jumps from a crouch into a shoulder dive which forces San to jump back and throw. Wooyoung spins into a series of kicks and swipes which have San fighting to stand his ground. San is finally able to throw a blade into a four foot arc so Wooyoung is too far to strike, yet is too close to grab hold without getting kicked immediately after. 

_ I want it, I got it _

_I want it, I got it_

He does a butterfly around his back then releases a knife. Wooyoung is back in cat position and uses the wall to rebound into a strike which San backflips away from. 

_I see it, i like it, I want it, I got it_

The bells continue to play as the two stand in their ready positions on opposite sides of the parking lot. The screen fades to a new logo: ATEEZxCOLORS with the ‘Ateez’ part in Wooyoung’s shade of Mulberry purple and ‘Colors’ written in Sunshine yellow. 

“Nice touch.” Mingi nudges Yeosang’s shoulder. 

++

⏸️ ⏭️ 🔉 0:00/1:34

* * *

Fall Out Boy - [Uma Thurman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBswx7GEARc) \- COLORS (G/W)

A wild guitar solo twangs over a brass section, the Colors logo flashing dark green, then a bright silver. The frame rises up from the ground up to show some dirt and moss from the woods out back, the sun setting in the background. 

_ You’ll find a way and may death find you alive _

The camera stays pinned in close on their feet. They move back and forth in a sort of push-pull, their swordwork a mystery out of the frame. This is going to be the part shown in their teaser for sure.

_ You’ll find a way and may death find you alive _

The camera pulls back to show Yeosang without his usual two-handed long sword and instead with a light, hiltless blade offset from an obsidian black handle. He rears back.

_ She wants to dance like Uma Thurman _

_ Bury me ‘til I confess _

Hongjoong’s grappling hook is still closed in the lance position. The white tassels hanging off of him are stuck in between his legs as he dances back and forth against the green knight. His weapon is longer, which he uses to his advantage while rushing forward and bats.

_ I can move mountains I can work a miracle, work a miracle _

_ Keep you like an oath _

Hongjoong does a quarter turn and kneels with his grappling hook to block Yeosang’s sword. He gives a hardened look, then unwinds himself to swing the hook in wide arcs. 

With the hook held like a baseball bat, Hongjoong ducks as he runs past. When he slips under the sword stroke, he opens the hook, knocking Yeosang flat on his back. Yeosang rolls out of the way and defends himself with the shield plates all along his left arm. He jumps up and rushes in. There's a closeup shot of them eye to eye, weapon to weapon, then the same outro plays during the static with the words now in Ghost white and Juniper green. 

San has started trying to steal food off of Yeosang's plate, completely unaware that Mingi is stealing food off of _his_ plate while he's distracted. 

"You've gotta tell me- were you actually fighting in the intro or just moving around?" He asks, popping a piece of chicken in his mouth. Yeosang can see what he's doing and lightly fends San off so he doesn't turn around. 

"I'll post the practice version, if you want- the one where I used the wrong code and got hit in the head with the drone." 

++

⏸️ ⏭️ 🔉 0:00/1:20

* * *

You and Me at Six - [Underdog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcAns_hqtM) \- COLORS (R/O)

At first, there’s silence. The title card flashes in with the beat, then fades out. The frame opens with a fast guitar and Seonghwa sprinting. 

_You must have the must-have moments _

Seonghwa looks back every few seconds, but they can’t see what it is he’s running from. He makes it into a bright garden with some kind of monument where he slows down, checking for danger. His axe spins at the ready. He's worried.

_ It ain't broke _

The camera moves to show a figure right behind him.

_ So don't fix it _

He jumps out of the way as Jongho strikes down, left, down, right with terrifying speed and strength. Seonghwa whips his axe around his waist 1 2 3.

_ It's such a shame, a shame _

_ We had to find out this way _

The view shifts to see over Seonghwa's shoulder, now with full view of Jongho's armor and weapon. It comes down with a heavy slam just barely missing Seonghwa as he rolls out of the way and pops to his feet.

_ So watch your mouth _

_ Sit this one out _

Something doesn't sound right... Yeosang must have spliced together the choruses to make it easier to choreograph.

_We'll keep you in mind in the end _

The running resumes until he hits a deadend and he turns, wide-eyed.

Jongho approaches slowly, weapon raised. 

_ Underdog _

With no choice, Seonghwa uses the wall to bound over Jongho, landing him in a more open space where he can use his weapon. He whirls right into a long slash which Jongho bats away. With the heaviness of the weapon, it goes flying off screen. Seonghwa does a slide just as the mallet comes down behind him and he picks his weapon up in time to stop a swing.

_ Revenge loves company _

_ Three makes it a crowd _

Seonghwa rallies with a forward charge. They meet weapon to weapon and wrestle until they push off each other and back up. The camera pulls back to show the rich red and burnt orange against the bright background. There’s a lingering guitar as the scene closes. Seonghwa is crouched again away from Jongho, who’s ready to take him on. The ending logo appears again, this time in Vermillion red and Firestorm orange. 

“How far into your teen angst playlist did you have to dig to find this?” Mingi nudges him the shoulder with the elbow that isn’t being used to help support his possibly 3 pounds of eggplant parmesan. Their eldest rolls his eyes. 

“_Yes _.” 

++

⏸️ ⏭️ 🔉 0:00/1:16

* * *

Five Seconds of Summer - [Teeth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWeJHN5P-E8) \- COLORS (B/I)

Mingi remembers this just like it was yesterday. They found a courtyard to perform in, one with blossoming trees and bright flowers. Luckily, there weren't maybe people around, and the ones who _ were _ there let them alone. The song title fades in like destroyed film and then fades back out. 

_Some days you're the only thing I know_

The camera spirals down from above only showing their heads. They're both looking down so it's impossible to see who's who. It twists until it dips between them, then pulls back to show only their feet. They move to start back to back, then walk in time with the beat.

_ Sometimes you’re a stranger in my bed _

_ Don’t know if you love me or you want me dead _

The camera pulls out to keep both of them on the edges of the screen, and right before the audience can see above the waist, it passes between them to the other side, switching their positions. This is where Mingi asked Yeosang to cut their teaser trailer. 

_Beg me to stay, beg me to stay_

_ Call me in the morning to apologize _

The drone flies in and closely inspects Mingi’s new dark blue tassels and heart-shaped ribbon spear, then flies back to show off Yunho’s armored boots, long cobalt-veined robe, and shiny chestplate. They turn to face each other.

Mingi slides back and changes his spear position, Yunho already running towards him. 

_ Fight so dirty but you love so sweet _

Their movements are blocky, but it fits with the harsh sound of the static. The scythe bangs hard against the spear overhand, underhand, side. Yunho catches Mingi’s spear in his sweep, then twists to bring him down.

_ And never, never, never, ever let go _

Mingi squats to put himself at a better angle to dislodge his weapon. He does a quick jab to buy himself some time, but Yunho arcs wide and kicks too quickly for him to recover. Their robes plume outwards as they spin past, and Mingi slides out of the way into a ready position.

_ And never, never, never, ever let go _

The screen cuts to black on the last ‘go’ just as they’re about to jump back in; an effect to leave viewers wondering ‘woah, what was that?’. The final ending shows the words ATEEZxCOLORS in Cobalt indigo and Midnight blue. 

“So? What do you guys think?” Yeosang is still eating his chicken completely unaffected since he’s seen the clips so many times, but the rest of them are losing their collective minds. 

San drops his food on the table and tackles their friend while screaming variations of ‘IT’S SO GOOD I’M SO EXCITED’. Seonghwa jumps on top of him and Mingi, on top of all of them. Every time they complete a video, it’s a huge accomplishment meticuluously planned over months and months and it just feels so good, like a satisfaction that can only come from this level of hard work. Their day jobs are what they are, but this? This is what they’re passionate about. 

“Yo, this is gonna be awesome when it drops!” 

++

They spend the rest of dinner watching Let’s Plays and questioning science until Jihyo whips out a dad joke so greasy that Manager Xiao declares they've reach loopy hours and need to go home immediately. Ateez entrusts the leftovers to Jongho and pile in with goodnight's and sleep well's passed between them. As Mingi and the rest of his members are packing up, Jihyo hands them all flashdrives (color coded, of course, because there’s a prime opportunity here and like hell is she going to miss it) and tells them she'll see them around. It's almost midnight when San and Mingi stumble into the house, neither daring to turn on most of the lights since it’ll blind them. 

“Hey Min?” San asks with his toothbrush still in, “What are we gonna do with them tomorrow? Now, that we did the teasers and don't have another song.” 

Mingi's been thinking the same thing since he plopped down on his mattress. His backpains have plateaued at approximately 60-year-old levels, but if he doesn’t take more time to stretch he’s going to be hobbling around like a great grandpa. “I dunno. We’ll just play it by ear.” 

“Yeah… We’ll see I guess.” He fidgets with the little yellow 2GB stick in his hand and shrugs. “Goodnight, Min.”

“Goodnight, Sannie.” 

++

Group: **A Boatful of Sinners**

_Today, 12:57 am_

**Yellow ** has changed the group name to **IM OMMA WAY**

Yellow: I AM GOING TO LOSE MY WHOLE SHOES

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience everyone! I've got some goodies as an apology:  
[ Banner ](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1256659183073726466?s=19)  
[ Hexes ](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1256659107643379712?s=19)


	12. HIGH FIVE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know what to call this one so I went with the [fsong I listened to most recently](https://youtu.be/z6A2LHGx8_A)

"Well what if we try it like this?" 

"Nonono, if you do that, then you guys have to fight, and then  _ you  _ guys will also have to fight, but that can't happen because you already fought." 

"Then just move over, I'll trade- wait, then we'll have three Colors on one team..." 

Yunho leans over to whisper in Mingi's ear, "Is it always like this?" 

He nods. "More or less." 

When he first heard the song, his mind exploded with shadows of figures fighting one another and in their collective group chat, they'd sent messages almost non-stop. Mingi had been gushing so hard about the track that he almost didn't hear Lars come in to ask for help with his mobile workstation. It took his entire willpower to not reveal everything, but it's not like handing out loaner laptops is any fun compared to what they do at the warehouse. The intense drums at the beginning, the strong beat, then Yunho's growl in the middle... it's like this song was made for Colors! 

The first thing they agreed to was the last verse being a team battle, right after Jongho's bridge, and it would start with San throwing a knife. What happens after that; a complete mystery since they apparently can’t make execuitve decisions. San wanted a three-three-two arrangement while Seonghwa and Yeosang wanted a four-four and Mingi wanted pairs all the way through, but it looks like they're going with a four vs. four team-based approach since it'll give them the most cohesive storyline. 

What was that? What storyline? They’ve got a pin in it.

"Right, so you go over here-" Yeosang pulls Wooyoung over so he's next to Mingi, "-and then I'll go over here too, and we'll get Yunho." 

"No, no- we’ve both fought Hongjoong. I trained him, you did the trailer- we have to either fight Jongho or Wooyoung, so we have to be on opposite teams.” 

"Why don't we start over." 

Everyone grumbles and goes back to where they were when they started this debate an hour ago. Mingi's back pains are starting to creep in from standing in one place for so long. These sorts of debates usually resolve themselves in 20 minutes, max, but it isn't just them that they have to worry about- Ateez is responsible to their whole fandom, one that's grown by the thousands over the past year. The job that Colors do will reflect on Ateez, for better or for worse. The pressure's on. 

“Ok, so I’ll be over here, and I’ve already fought you guys, so you go over there. Now, you two go over  _ there _ and  _ there  _ since you’re both Colors…”

_ Sigh _ .

It's going to be a long night. 

  
  


++

San lets out a groan reminiscent to that of an elephant seal mating call when Mingi tries to shame him awake. 

"I'm serious, San, I'm gonna fireman carry you if you don't get out of the car within the next two minutes!" 

Mingi's gotten most of their equipment out of the car already, the little digital numbers on the dash reading 5:02am. It's an ungodly hour to be awake, especially on a Thursday, but they have to move practice on-site now or they won't make the deadline. They need to walk through the choreography, put down tape so they remember the blocking, pray that when they do flips they don’t concuss themselves on the ceiling, and check if the cameras are showing exactly what they're supposed to. Let's see... he's got his spear, San's knife belt, the first aid kit, his phone in case they have to call Fred from the ambulance service... yeah, that should do it. They have no time to spare, and that would be fine if  _ somebody  _ didn't insist on getting an extra nap in right now. Mingi looks at the clock. 

5:05am

_ Well…. If San insists…. _

Seonghwa and Yeosang don't bat an eye as they're greeted by San's butt, which is facing them since he's been thrown over one shoulder. They're reviewing the footage from the drone's first fly-by, and based on the amount of muttering Yeosang isn't doing, it seems to be going well. 

"Come on, San, you can do it. Final push. Just like in college." The things and person in his hands are getting exponentially heavier the longer he holds them. Mingi sets his friend down by leaning forward and letting him slide off like a limp noodle. It’s a little pitiful, to be honest, and he wishes he could wrap San up and put him back in his mountain of blankets, but it’s 5:15 now which means they have a little more more than an hour and a half before they have to go home and clean themselves up for work. 

San grabs his knives off the floor with another cathartic pelican screech and trudges up the ramp.

The levels of the parking garage wind around and around up to a fourth floor, which is where the video will start and end. There are no cars now; a good sign. That means when they actually get to their final cut, the background will be clean. Mingi leaves San on the second floor and goes up to the third with a yawn while Seonghwa continues up to the fourth. He spins his spear across his back, around his waist, jab, jab, slide- the way he and Wooyoung will fight when they’re ready to film and when he’s much more awake. Just needs to stretch out, take a deep breath….

"STARTING NOW!" Yeosang yells and Mingi relays the message up the ramp because he knows his voice isn't loud enough to make it all the way upstairs. Time to focus. Even if it’s just a dry run, he needs to get this down for when Ateez come in for training later.

Oh god, Ateez are coming in for training later. Mingi isn’t going to get any sleep, is he?

_ All eyes on me now! _

Screw it, that’s a problem for later. For now, just focus on the music.

++

They make it through the morning without getting hurt which is a miracle in and of itself. Mingi is completely distracted at the office, but can anyone blame him? It's like they were meant to perform this song what with its intensity and style... every day is like a countdown until he can go to the warehouse and work on the song. They have all of the individual fights to do, but those are nothing compared to the amout of coordination their group fight will take, which they've barely started choreographing.

"Seonghwa! Mingi! Alley-oop!”

One of the coolest moves they have is the Launch. San’s been thrown every time minus that one video where they threw Seonghwa, but they won’t do that again any time soon since Janice from the ER was most displeased seeing them twice in one month. It’s worth it, though, it'll impress Atiny. They’re pulling out all the stops for this one.

San takes a step into Seonghwa’s hands, careful not to squish his fingers, and launches into the air. He slows at the apex, spinning, and grabbing hold of Mingi’s shoulder with his leg and bringing them both to the ground. Mingi does a dive roll so the impact doesn’t kill the both of them, then stands up. They all look at Yeosang, who’s observing through a lens. He gives them the ok.

“Looks good. We can have that happen after you get untangled, in the second switch.” 

They nod. Perfect, that’s perfect. Things are coming along. Is Mingi stressed? You bet your pants he is. They work through the rest of the verse, blocking out where the eight of them will end up the best they can with only four people. Seonghwa is using his hands and a foot to describe a switch scene between Yeosang and Wooyoung when there’s a knock at the door. 

“I’ve got it!” San holsters his knives and welcomes the members in. “We’re working on the finale. Come on out when you’re ready.”

They don’t really need to be told where to go or what to do- they’ve got the routine down pat. If the first half of their training period went fast, the second half is going by at light speed. Mingi can count on his fingers and toes how many days they have left to get this right, and it puts a knot in his stomach thinking about when Ateez aren’t around and they have to go back to ‘normal’ life. 

“Hi Mingi! Did you see the location today? What’s it like?” 

Wooyoung is still tucking in the ends of the belts keeping the armor attached to his body. He does it like it’s nothing, and Mingi feels a swell of pride. 

“It works for what we’re doing. We’ll take a drive by, after we get changed.” The news must be exciting to Wooyoung, who taps the ends of his claws together like he’s clapping. Jongho is on the field now, Hongjoong right behind him with Yunho in his long, dark cloak trailing them. “It looks like we’re ready to start.” 

They assemble by the back, where the giant drawing pad with their choreo on it is still flipped to the page from yesterday. Mingi glances at the lot of them out of the corner of his eye, wishing he could commit the image of them all together in his memory.

“So!” Seonghwa brings him back with a clap, “Let’s pick up at the part right here before Jongho fights Yunho….” 

++

They did it.

They did it?

It doesn’t feel real, realizing after the song ends that they made it all the way through without a mistake and captured it on video. There’s always a moment of disbelief, and it always preceeds the chaos. San flies into Seonghwa’s arms with a cheer and gets spun around, Yeosang throwing down his weapon and screaming with joy. They get dinner on KQ (how they have the budget to feed this many bottomless pits is a mystery) and spend the evening at Seonghwa’s apartment watching Stranger Things until some weird time warp occurs and it’s almost midngiht despite it feeling like only 20 minutes have passed. It’s jarring, and getting up to see them out feels like a blur, but then they’re exchanging numbers and saying goodnight and hoping that they can stop by before they have to fly back to Korea. 

That was a week ago. 

“You’re sulking.”

“I am  _ not  _ sulking.” 

“That’s exactly what someone who’s sulking would say.”

San has been doing target practice for the past two hours, and Mingi already knows he’s going to be on dinner duty since San won’t be able to raise his arms above his shoulders tomorrow. Everything is back to normal, more or less, and it’s… odd. 

Really odd. 

They arrived at the warehouse at 10 and did warmups 10 times quieter. Without all of the distractions, they finished blocking out the choreo for their next standard upload in 3 hours which means they can go home and honestly? It’s kind of boring. They have the chat if they really need to track the others down, but they’re in a lull. San and Mingi pile back into the Jeep and head back home, the sun still shining. He sighs. 

Fine, maybe he  _ is _ sulking. 

None of them have heard much of anything out of Ateez, and when they do, it’s short. Mingi gets tempted to text Yunho sometimes, but he doesn’t want to be a bother so instead he slips his phone back into his pocket and looks at his embarrassingly long list of projects he's put on the back burner. At the end of the day, this was a business transaction. Ateez get to promote to their Rainbows. Colors have the additional exposure from Atiny. They have to keep moving- that’s the industry.

Mingi gets out of the shower and contemplates which of his four million video game WIPs he wants to try to complete tonight. He steps out into the hall and is immediately met with a sweater to the face, San, what the fuck-

“GET YOUR THINGS, LOSER, WE’RE GOING ON A TRIP!” 

“WE’RE DOING WHAT NOW???” Mingi yells back, incredibly confused. 

“Check the chat!”

Oh boy, where did he put that thing? No, not on the counter… not on his bed… oh, here it is- 

Group:  **How in the World Do I Rotate Text in MS Paint **

_ Friday,  _ 5:20pm

Red: Did someone grab my canteen

Red: Ignore me, found it

_ Friday, 10:10pm _

Green: I’m on League if anyone wants to play 

_ Today, 5:44pm _

Green: GUYS

Green: GUYS ANSWER ME

Green: Y’ALL I GOT AN ENTIRE ATEEZ IN MY LIVING ROOM GET OVER HERE

Red: WAHT

Red: GVIE ME AM INUTE

Green THE MARIO KART IS OUT

Yellow: I NEED PANTS

San’s car is already running when Mingi runs out the door, shoes untied and phone almost falling out of his loose joggers. They make the 30-minute drive to Yeosang’s in 22, and they’re sprinting up the stairs at record speed. San knocks on the door, then puts his hands on his knees so he can catch his breath. 

“I’m not cut out for this.” 

“You’re the most athletic one here!”

“And I’m ready to never move again in my life.” 

The door swings open to reveal Seonghwa and behind him, four young men huddled in a semi-circle around the TV Yeosang is setting up. 

“Finally! We’re going to do team Mario Kart since we have eight people and four controllers. I just explained the rules. Sit down, we’re gonna do Bowser’s Castle!” he pulls them to their spots, San taking a knee next to Wooyoung and Mingi landing with zero grace on his butt next to Yunho, and all of sudden they’re  _ there _ , natural, like no time has passed. It occurs to him that while they’ve missed hanging out with their new friends, said friends have missed them just as much. 

“Are you good at this?” Yunho asks, scooting over so they’re shoulder to shoulder. He holds out the free end of the controller; the left side with the joystick while his own thumb covers the side with buttons. Mingi takes the side and finds a balance where they can work together. Now isn't the time to worry about tomorrow. Ateez have got to go back- there’s no question about it- but at least while they’re together, they’ll live in the moment. 

“No, but that’s half the fun, isn’t it?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Onewe is having a comeback on Tuesday and asdfghjkl  
Also shoutout to A for being a Real One


	13. WONDERLAND

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all  
Short chapter this week. These past few months have felt like the exposition during the opening credits of a horror movie

ATEEZ - WONDERLAND - COLORS (ROYP/GBIW)

* * *

⏸️ ⏭️ 🔉 0:00/3:36

The video opens to a pan from the sky down to the roof of a parking garage. The drums thunder as Mingi, Yunho, and Yeosang stay crouched beside Hongjoong, who’s working on some device. 

_ All eyes on me now! _

Suddenly, Mingi stands up and looks over the edge. He says something to Hongjoong, who immediately stops what he's doing and looks over. He points towards the ramp and sends them off with some unheard instruction before returning to the ledge. When he looks back, the camera follows his gaze down the ramp. It passes by Mingi, Yunho, then Yeosang all walking to their stations. 

_ teojildeuthan _

The camera passes Yeosang and continues forward to the group approaching the structure. It stops right in front of Seonghwa, walking forward with San, Wooyoung, and Jongho behind him. He looks up towards Hongjoong, spins his axe around, and points it at him as he approaches the first floor. They all draw their weapons as they meet the first obstacle.

_ neoneun yeogiseo meomchul tenga _

The camera pulls back to show Yeosang raising his sword, everyone visible through the slot in the garage wall. San easily runs past Yeosang with one long arc as cover. Wooyoung pounces around the other direction. As Yeosang moves to try reaching him, Seonghwa runs past on the other side. With just the two of them left, there’s no way Jongho can get out without a fight. 

_ Gaja _

The camera slowly moves back in. Yeosang raises his sword. 

_ Gaja _

Jongho’s grip tightens on his mallet. 

_ kkeuti gidarineun shijageuro _

Jongho takes two heavy swings to gain momentum, then does three fast swings around his waist, forcing Yeosang back. The view switches from their side to over his shoulder as they move over the concrete. The gem mallet slams against the sword, Yeosang turning to deflect, then jolting forward. He slashes forward, kicks, lands on one knee, and rolls away to avoid Jongho’s strike. When he rushes head on, the camera follows the point of his sword up the ramp to the next fight.

_ Fix on! _

San skirts backwards out of the way of Yunho’s scythe, catching a blade. He runs up to a wall and bounces, throwing his second knife as he does to cover while he runs in for a hand-to-hand attack. Yunho blocks his kicks and knife swipes while retreating until they switch positions and San is forced to deflect the much heavier weapon. The scythe comes down hard, indigo robs spinning as Yunho whirls around to chase him down the ramp. The view rotates to stay on them even as it backs up and moves around the corner to the next fight.

_ teojyeobeoryeodo _

Wooyoung goes flying as Mingi throws him, landing in a crouch. He blocks the incoming strike with one armored hand while reaching out with the other, Mingi spinning out of the way and batting downward to avoid being scratched. The spear circles across his back, around his waist, then jabs twice as they step together across the frame. Even as the angle begins to widen, Wooyoung and Mingi continue whaling blows at one another in time with the beat.

_ neoneun yeogiseo meomchul tenga _

As it moves, San and Yunho come into view below them, then Hongjoong and Seonghwa up top and finally Jongho and Yeosang still on the first floor. They’re still facing off just as ferociously as they were when their fights started, and it doesn’t look like any of them will give up any time soon. 

_ Gaja _

The angle slowly narrows, focusing on the red and white figures on the roof. 

_ Gaja _

_ kkeuti gidarineun shijageuro _

The swing of the axe creates elegant arcs in the air with Seonghwa behind it, laser-focused. The camera shifts to show the plume of Seonghwa’s robes as he spins on his toes, Hongjoong rolling out of the frame, and then attacking with his hook. He can only fight him with one hand, and it’s easy to see he’s at a disadvantage against the red axe’s relentless blows while they dance across the frame. At the very last moment, he opens up his hook and narrows his eyes at Seonghwa.

_ Breaking the white wall _

When they break apart, the camera pulls back revealing Mingi, Yunho, and Yeosang emerging from the stairwells behind Hongjoong. The camera rotates to show Seonghwa supported by his team as well. They wait in a standoff as the bridge vocals mount.

_ Geu iyeuga urin _

San looks at Seonghwa, then throws a knife.

_ mame deureo! _

Yeosang darts in front of Hongjoong, catches it, and pulls. 

San flies forward, the others rushing in to cover. Wooyoung dashes ahead to tackle Yeosang, Yunho clashing his scythe against Seonghwa. Mingi underhand swings against Jongho, who blocks as they traverse the frame. At the edge, Hongjoong ducks under a knife swing and opens the hook. Mingi pushes Jongho towards Yunho, kicking Seonghwa on his way to pull San from Hongjoong, who swings at Wooyoung to stop him from teaming up with Seonghwa against Yeosang.

_ Im omma way _

_ Modu bareul majchugo _

San backs away from Yeosang and yells to Seonghwa, who throws him into an advancing Mingi. Yunho rushes in to swing in the gap and is met with Wooyoung pouncing on him. When they fall to the ground and roll out of the frame, Hongjoong throws the device into the air so he can two-hand hit, catching it on its way down and retreating to his side. Flashes of color pass as the forces separate. 

_ Gaja _

The members stand with four on each side, ready to jump back into battle. The combined logo flashes on the screen, and the video cuts to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll spread out the rest of the drawings over the next few chapters, but here's a better copy of [Seonghwa](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1266827321828429825?s=20) and [Yeosang](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1266827499029385219?s=20). I have a better version of San, and I'll redo the version of Mingi on my laptop.


	14. GET BEHIND THIS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yunho is tired but that is ok

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henlo y'all  
I wasn't really sure what to write about but felt like I should update, so here we are. Title is from Flor's [Get Behind This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_weiJJZgCgg)

Yunho is getting his ass absolutely handed to him by life and that's ok. He survived debut, he's survived comebacks- if he can live through that, he can live through anything

...after he takes a nap

There's no such thing as a regular schedule during promotions. Sleep is something they get when they get it, and not a second before, and it's a precious commodity right ahead of food and hydration that they are going to get _ now _ before their next appearance. 

They manage to make it back into the dorm once they’re done with their pre-recording and final cut, but they don't make it much further than that. Hongjoong has this slightly concerning ability to fall asleep at any time of the day and in any position with ten seconds’ notice. He ends up passing out with his torso in his room, his legs in the hall, and his backpack slumped against the open door with his laptop sliding out. Wooyoung is rustling around in his room and singing for volume and not pitch in order to keep himself motivated long enough to take a shower. Last he saw Jongho, he was on the couch with a blanket over his face, which means he has likely astral projected. Yunho changes into sweatpants and counts the time on his fingers. He has an hour and a half, maybe two hours for a nap right before their managers cart them off to Inkigayo and he's determined to make the most of it. He slams face-first into his mattress and can literally feel his bones clicking back into place. _Sigh. _It's good to be at the home. Yunho hears someone call for him and tells himself he didn't hear that. No disturbances, no nothing- his bed is so comfy, he could stay there forever...

....And then a wild Wooyoung appears. 

"Hyung!!!"

There's a weight on top of him, a face in his face, and Wooyoung asks if he can snuggle between Yunho and the wall as he's doing it. Yunho wants to shove him off and maybe tell him off, but Wooyoung is too sweet, and he knows he is, and that’s why he gets a pass when he comes in unannounced, wielding the h-word even though they were born less than a year apart.

"Hm?"

"Did you see?"

He just wants to sleep. Is that too much to ask? Yunho makes up his mind that whatever Wooyoung is asking about is automatically the worst thing ever. "Did I see _ what _?"

"Colors! They're planning something, I think it's for the midyear switch!"

"The who did what now?" 

"I hit the ding-dong so I get notified if any of [my faves ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTFVnSwKKxUrBk0etEXVk9w)upload. Also I've been talking to San recently about traveling and food and working out and- hey don't give me that face!" Wooyoung smacks him in the shoulder, "Anyway, watch this. It's only like 20 seconds long. Tell me what you think!"

The phone makes a hollow sound as it hits his chest, Wooyoung running off to take a shower. He didn't have enough time to before they left for the radio station and he smells a bit like he tried to take a bath in a lake so he definitely needs it. Yunho picks up the beat-up iPhone with a limp hand. It turns out to only be a15 second video… what’s the harm? He presses the big triangle in the middle of Wooyoung's phone and waits for the ad to finish. 

The central light right above the play field casts a dim circle which just barely reaches the players. The logo rolls down into the middle of the screen, flashes their colors twice, then rolls down and out of view. There's a horn playing, one that Yunho realizes is the intro to ‘Win’, and they raise their weapons. 

_ Oh nanana _

_ Hey! _

They're barely visible in this lighting. It looks grungey; serious. Each member walks around the edge of the circle, four steps, then 

_ Step _

_ Step _

_ Spin _

_ Step _

Four steps to the corner, then they're walking off to their new corners out of sight. A date appears in big, blocky white letters over the empty field. 

That must be what Wooyoung is so excited about. ‘Win’ has the right beat for a fast-paced battle. There’s a heap of potential, especially if they’re going to do the... the mid-year... mid-year swap? Switch? Yunho's got zero higher function left right now. He searches up the terms and flicks across the screen until he sees a playlist with Seonghwa's face on it.

**Playlist- Colors Mid Year Switch**

Five videos doesn’t seem like a lot. He might as well, right? The one on the bottom is the one he just saw, and two of them are 30-second trailers. He clicks on a video dated 2017. The armor isn’t as sophisticated as the sets he saw, but the video must have been in the very beginning of their channel, and a lot can change in two years. Mingi is wearing greenish armor and has a two handed sword, and it looks a little strange until he sees that none of them are the colors they’re supposed to be. They give a standard outro in those outfits, something about the new community tab on the YouTube homepage and their fans choosing their next video through the poll. Yunho clicks ‘next’ so he can watch the video from last year. This time, Mingi is in red. He swings around the axe with the same familiar motions he trained Yunho with, and Yunho briefly considers asking his members to teach him their weapons. Ateez had to commit to one weapon and learn quickly just because of their impossible schedule, but it would be fun to learn the other weapons. Maybe he could ask Mingi? Nah, no way. It would be too forward of him to ask. He goes to put the phone down, but picks it back up and squints.

The autoplay has **Playlist- Colors Plot So Far (2019)** queued up with a ‘22’ written on the thumbnail. Yunho doesn't bother to click away. It doesn't take much effort to lay in bed and watch YouTube. He rolls on his side and lets the playlist cycle through some cryptic story revolving around an experiment, and escape, and mind control. Maybe superpowers? It's tough to tell. By the fourth video, he figures out that San's character ‘Yellow’ can get into people's minds, and by the 12th that there was some history between Green and Blue. Or maybe that was an illusion too? Who knows- that whole cinematic made even less sense once he started reading through the theories in the comments, and he doesn’t have enough braincells for this. Yunho groans as he shuffles onto his other side. His neck is bent at an angle that's going to hurt tomorrow, or maybe later today considering it's only 6 in the morning. 

_Wait a minute. _

"Yunho, there you are! Time to go." Hongjoong darts out of the door to go get Wooyoung and Jongho. The time he was supposed to be napping he was watching videos. He can get a 20-minute rest in the car, but after that….. 

Yunho groans into his pillow. 

"Why do I do this to myself..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did some things to make up for the lack of posting:  
[Blue/Mingi](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1279821382004756483?s=20)  
[Yellow/San](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1279821351126216706?s=20)  
[White/Hongjoong](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1284280661898153987?s=20)  
[Indigo/Yunho](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1284280714654101505?s=20)  
[Orange/Jongho](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1284280742592339968?s=20)  
[Purple/Wooyoung](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah/status/1284280761898672130?s=20)


	15. OUT OF THE FRYING PAN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingi finally, finally starts talking to Yunho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Not knowing where this story is going anymore or how to get to the end  
Also me: *shrugs*  
I found another plot hole!

No matter how fast Mingi runs, he can’t seem to outrun San. 

"-14 pounds of bubblewrap, and I'm gonna take your thin, noodly body and dump it in a bog where they won't find you for like a jillion years and when they _ do _ you're gonna be like those exhibits we saw that time we went to the museum, and they aren't gonna know why you're there, but I'm gonna _ make sure _they know why you're there, I'm gonna take a giant stone like this big- are you listening to me, Mingi?!"

Mingi is _ not _listening, he's putting all his energy towards his best 'I don't know you, we are not friends' look as a group of amused and slightly concerned interns passes them. He recognizes one as.... Lana? Layla? Scrap that, he’s got no clue who those people are, and that isn’t his highest priority right now. Right now, he has to go at the speed of Fast and make use of his long legs. 

"....it's gonna be like _ this _ tall and _ this _wide, I'm gonna tape it to you with that hippie flower duct tape you hate, and it's gonna say 'Song Mingi, 1999-2019, put to rest at the hands of Choi San'-"

"Violently murdered by the hands of Choi San-"

"SENT ON A ONE-WAY TRIP TO THE AFTERLIFE BY THE HANDS OF CHOI SAN-" San yells loudly enough where the sound echoes slightly off the walls, and that means Finance can probably hear them and they'll get looks for being that eccentric gay couple that isn't actually a couple, except for on the occasional Saturday because Mingi has crippling social anxiety when it comes to people who know what they want and are not afraid to ask for it and San is all too willing to grab a handful of booty and say things that aren't necessarily true. 

Mingi runs ahead and down the stairs, waving at Lars before they exit for the parking lot. There's open air and significantly fewer people to hear San air his grievances regarding the 'Mingi won't text Yunho' situation, which isn't _really_ a situation, it's just that he enjoyed Yunho's company and would like to continue that but doesn't want to bother him because Mingi is a polite, considerate human who doesn’t want to be a jerk to the human equivalent of a cotton candy golden retriever. San keeps saying it's fine, that Yunho probably gets requests like that all the time from people who aren't nearly as well-worded as him, and if Yunho were really determined to shut the proverbial ("Metaphorical." "Did I stutter?") window, he'd probably let him down in the nicest, gentlest, cotton candiest- way possible, but that only makes Mingi go into 'that's a social situation and I don't like it' panic more. He isn't like San, who just kind of _knows_ how to deal with humans. Mingi's hit or miss. 

"--and it's all because you won't open your big, dumb mouth, and I’m not writing ‘rest in peace’ because I don’t _ want _you to rest in peace-"

"It's not that easy! You and Wooyoung started talking and never stopped talking, you don't have to do a reintroduction!"

"We already went through this once with Hongjoong and it was fine! Just send him a meme and congratulate him on his most recent stage, and if you won’t then stop moping about it!" 

"I’m not moping!”

“The neighbors started banging on the ceiling from how loud you were sighing!” 

“They bang on the ceiling for everything! And besides, I didn’t even see today’s stage.”

"It was Inkigayo, the red outfits. It just finished up while we were walking out, and that _ reminds _me!" San launches into another long-winded description of how he's going to fit Mingi's body parts in said bog as they exit out of the complex where the architecture firm is and do the wind-around past the garden. He gets to the explanation of the calcification process as they're reaching their own front door, and Mingi's phone buzzes with a blessed distraction. 

"-due to the soil composistion-"

Mingi interjects with a hand placed on San's shoulder. "Really quick, Seonghwa wants to know if you want to go for dinner."

"-and I calculated it with actual math and science- it takes _ approximately- _wait, but it isn't Friday." San blinks. 

Mingi shrugs. "You tell him that." 

San whips out his phone and scrolls up in the group chat, reading through where Yeosang had been celebrating the completion of a small project and saying he needed to eat. Seonghwa replied with a picture from the restaurant week deals with text that tests all of their eyesights and will take effort to read. San’s fully focused. 

Time to make his escape.

Mingi slips out into his room and trust falls onto his bed. He lets out a deep sigh.

It’s been a wild few weeks and Mingi is _ tired _. Bone-deep, laughing like a crazy person, pass out on the spot-level tired. It’s tough trying to keep up with their fans now. Their Twitter account ballooned to more than four times the size, swelling from 12k to just over 50k, and Yeosang is still fighting fires in the notifications and DM departments whenever he isn’t sketching designs for their mid-year weapon change. San is getting overwhelmed by the increased attention and questions from people who are just Atiny, not even RainTiny, and he has this thing about responding to messages once he's seen them, even if it's just a few heart emojis in thanks. He’s on his phone way more than he used to since he’s the one who keeps track of their Instagram and the vein in his forehead looks like it could burst at a moment’s notice. Any time Mingi isn’t planning out his own outfit, he’s sifting through YouTube comments just to keep up with them, and he’s had a blue light-induced headache continuously for the past three days.

“Mingiiiiiiiiii!!! What do you want to eeeeeeeaaaaaaat?!” San yells louder than necessary. 

“Anything edible!” He yells back, louder. 

That’s not to mention the changes to their schedule. They may or may not have to start searching for a new warehouse now that people think what they’re doing is super cool and want to drop by, and that would be a damn shame since they get to use the space for a huge discount; a deal San was able to charm Mrs. Ko into in exchange for eating lunch with her every Wednesday, which he does religiously at 1:00 sharp. Until that gets sorted, they're going to try some parkour-style videos, ones with only one or two members that require significantly less organization. It's a placeholder. Hopefully their Rainbows won't dock them for the decrease in quality on their channel. Even after an entire night spent surrounded by papers like a bunch of crackhead conspiracy theories in Seonghwa’s apartment, there are still too many variables, too many possibilities, too many pitfalls and not enough guiderails. It’s kind of messy and it makes his headache worse. 

“Min! Are you awake? Come on! Food time!”

Mingi's stomach answers for him, loud and insistent. He doesn't feel hungry, he feels stressed, but he might as well take care of the things he can control.

"Be there in a minute." 

++

They go out to the cute neon-painted taco truck that parks at the edge of the park and sit together squished on a bench not meant for four adult grown men. Yeosang asks Seonghwa if he can sit on his lap and ends up laying across all their laps because he’s a creature of comfort and he’s _ him_, and they munch on their Mexican goodness between stories. Stories that include part 3487 of San's Grievance Agenda. 

"Oh my gosh, this again?" Seonghwa groans, and Mingi would thank the gods profusely if they were to have mercy upon his tired caffeine-and-sugar powered body and open up a hole in the ground for him to vanish into. 

San gives him the eyebrow. “I know, right? But I was thinking, Min- I'll make you a deal. Text him. If he doesn’t respond or comes up with some lame excuse, I’ll leave it alone forever.” 

‘Forever’ in San terms means approximately four months, but that’s better than nothing. Seonghwa and Yeosang simultaneously turn their heads like spectators in a game of verbal badminton. “This sounds like a trap.” 

“_BUT_ if he does, I get to design your outfit.”

Right, there it is. 

“Why would I agree to that?”

“Because I can imagine the commentary when people see your chest and it fills me with an inordinate amount of joy.” 

Mingi peels back more of the wrap. Can't he just have his meal without San meddling? “And if I win?” 

“You won’t.” 

“Mom come pick me up I’m scared.” he says, and San smiles that mischievous smile knowing that means he has no counterarguments left.

“Have no fear, I’m sure your prince charming will respond.”

Mingi’s eyes roll so far back into his head that he sees the 12th dimension. The bet it dumb. The others definitely think it’s dumb. But Mingi agrees and he buys himself 48 hours to either gather his courage or wear something truly unfortunate, and he's finally able to eat his burrito in peace. 

++

“You’re enjoying this too much.”

Yes, Mingi knew it was a bad bet. Yes, he knew he shouldn't have done it. Did that stop him? Of course not! And now San is running up to him with different fabrics and a smile that belongs only on Cheshire cats, and Mingi is Scared for his Life™. Now that they aren't choreographing, Mingi has been working out and getting what San calls ‘chesticles’, and Mingi agreed to let him show off… _ those _ as long as he promised to _ never _use that term again. 

XXXXXX0323: I'm sure he has good fashion sense

At least he has a conversation window open with Yunho now. He ended up begrudgingly sending one of those cat memes and congratulating him on his stage because he honestly couldn't think of anything better, and Mingi was so sure that between all of those stages and the amount of work on Yunho's plate that he wouldn't respond but...

"This is perfect. I'm gonna drape this over and it's gonna rest... just... about... this... length... perfect!" 

...he did. And then responded with something about their teaser video for 'Win'? That was an unexpected bonus. He had no idea Yunho would actually go out of his way to watch their videos, let alone come up with a Colors theory, which was cute and creative but ultimately very, very incorrect, and Yunho had sent strings of crying cat memes when Mingi refused to reveal the whole plot. 

Of course, Mingi's theories on waking, dreaming, and the vast amount of fedora-wearing weren't anywhere near correct either, but that's besides the point. 

XXXXXX0809: He does, that's Why I'm scared

XXXXXX0809: Plus he's still trying to get revenge for the Dishwasher Incident

XXXXXX0323: I cannot send enough eye emojis

it's become the norm now. Mingi will send a message. Yunho will respond when he's got the time. Sometimes his phone will ring in the middle of the night which is kind of concerning because that means it’s the crack of dawn in Korea and Yunho should be sleeping. It's casual. It's nice. 

XXXXXX0809: It’s a long story. It’s also super dumb

XXXXXX0323: If you’re willing to tell it, I’ve got time 

XXXXXX0809: Can I call you?

He sees the caller ID light up his screen, and he stares in awe for a moment before swiping to answer. 

<>_Hey Mingi, it’s me._<>His voice is tired, scratchy. He must have had a long day.  
  


“Hey! How was your day? Are you sure you want to do this now? The story’s not going to change if you wait.” 

<>_Nah, my schedule is all messed up so I can’t sleep. And I'm curious now! What happened? And there was a dishwasher?_<>

Well, insomnia’s as good a reason as ever. 

"It wasn't just a dishwasher. It also involved our landlord being arrested for felony tax evasion, a man with a unibrow, and a diner open 24-hours. Are you seated? I feel like you should be seated for this. Ready? Ok. Prepare for blastoff...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm looking at my plot skeleton of major points we have to hit. It looks like we're in for a 25-chapter story, but that's why I said about Forget Me Not and it ended up being 44 so I guess we'll see???
> 
> S/O to A for being a Real One


	16. Bonus: Alice's Restaurant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take a seat. It's time for a first-person retelling of the Dishwasher Incident.  
A very chaotic first-person retelling with a possibly unreliable narrator

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title/concept based on the song [Alice's Restaurant Massacree](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaKIX6oaSLs) by Arlo Guthrie.

“It all started that February during the big snow storm, and if San tells you otherwise, it's because he's a liar who doesn't want to admit how much of a weeb he was and pretend like his anime phase didn't happen. We don't usually get snow around here so when we did, it was a mess. Everything was shut down and snowed in, which was great because we could all catch up on our much-needed sleep. It was during this time that San got really, _really_ into anime. It started out as something to fill the background noise but eventually became a constant thing and sometime around April he's like 'Let's do ComicCon this year' and I'm like 'ok, bet'. We make a deal. Good stuff. Then I completely forget agreeing to this. 

"I’m at our apartment working on homework because I’m an idiot and a glutton for punishment and like to put myself through academic torture because it looks nice on a resume, and it's like... August? I get this call. It’s San. ‘Mingi’ he says, ‘I need your help. I need you to meet me on the side of the road’ And I don't wanna move because it's hot and I'm lazy and I'm in the middle of crying over Probability and Statistics, which is due Friday at midnight. ‘Mingi,’ he says, ‘I have a dishwasher’. ‘Where did you get a dishwasher,’ I ask. ‘It’s not mine.’ San answers. ‘Well did ya steal it?’ is the next logical question, and there’s a long pause before he says ‘no’ that really means ‘not yet’. So I, being the good and honest friend I am, tell him I'll meet him in 10 minutes on the side of the road so we can properly steal this dishwasher together.

“It takes us about an hour to get this thing situated in the back of my van- Hunky Dory- and then another two hours driving it to my parents' place because there's this big basement no one goes into that's virtually soundproof where we can work without getting a noise complaint. San opens the door from the inside using the awesome powers of cat burglary and then we have to wrangle it out of Hunky Dory and into the basement. Over the course of a few months, we build his cosplay armor out of parts from the dishwasher. That's actually how we learned a lot of our crafting skills for Colors, but that’s besides the point. 

"Now we're at the morning of the big day. We're ready for the Con. San and I stayed over at my parents' so we could get up and be there bright and early. We go down to the basement to get San's armor and head over. It's really hot so he doesn't want to wear anything underneath his armor and I don't have the energy to fight him so I just go with it. We make it to the line, and we get in. 

"Have you ever seen ComicCon? It's like geek paradise. There's every fandom, every media type, it's a real bonding experience. So cool. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to go, it's worth it. So we get there and we're wandering around. Took some pictures. I found a Mercy and a Roadhog and we did a kickline. We saw panels from artists and voice actors and a whole lot of other film people, and around 1pm we go outside to get lunch. 

"This is where things start happening. 

"We're sitting there, on our picnic blanket, food in mouth, and San taps me with his foot. 'Mingi', he goes, 'don't look now, but there's some creep watching us'. So of course I look with the subtly of Mount Everest and see this weird guy with a unibrow hunched over his notebook, scribbling furiously. He looks up, then looks back down and writes more. I'm like 'this is not the move' so we pick up our things and head back inside. Also worth mentioning that we texted our friends with a play-by-play and asked them all to avenge us if we die. If you ever need anyone to avenge you, I personally recommend Yeosang. 

"We go back inside and kinda forget about the guy for the rest of the Con. San is still on the lookout because he's paranoid like that, but nothing happens and we end up with this wicked haul of goodies. When we emerge it's like... I dunno, maybe 7 in the evening? We're hungry again so we decide to go down to Alice's restaurant for a bite before heading home. Alice's restaurant isn't actually the name of the place, it's just the diner that's run by Alice. It's open no matter what- rain, sleet, zombie apocalypse, the heat death of the universe- you could always count on it being open, and you could always count on an unbeatable brunch deal. This was great since San is weak for waffles. Also never call him that because he'll know you heard it from me and kick my ass. Long story. Anyway, we're walking and walking and then-

"There in the window. 

"The reflection of a unibrow.

"Now I'm narrating an r/NoSleep of our demise and San is aggressively whispering at me to narrate quieter. We pass by the restuarant try to put some distance between us and Mr. Unibrow. San determines that the best way to shake him is to do an impromptu costume change. We count down from five, then jump into an alley and run. 

"Once we've run far enough, we pull off everything and hide it behind some pallets. We do the loop around the alley and the main street like we're in DBD- do you know what that is? No? It's not important. Pretty much we just went in circles and then jumped into Alice's restaurant a few rounds later and ducked in a booth while Mr. Unibrow ran off still looking for us. We watched him wander off into the distance and then ordered some celebratory apple cider. We also panic-relayed the events of the last eight hours to Alice. 

"An hour or so in, San is like 'we should probably go back' and I'm like 'yeah' so we go to pay, but we realize now that we don't have any money. When we took of everything during the costume change, we must have taken off _everything_. This is awkward. Luckily San has this weird ability to charm older ladies into being soft for him, so Alice lets me sprint back to where we stored our things. Oh- if San asks why you know about the ahjumma thing, say Seonghwa told you. Our bags and costumes are still there, even our wallets, but our keys are gone, which is annoying because now we can't get into the apartment. We try to call up the landlord to see if maybe he'll let us in, but we can't get a hold of him. It's no big deal though- San says that we need to go back in through the basement anyway because when he decided to do Saint Seiya, he was adamant about recreating the gold Sagittarius cloth and thus can't fit it through a regular 7-by-3 door. We can sneak in like last time and they'll be none the wiser. 'But what about Unibrow?'. Alice says that she'll leave the diner in the hands of our buddy, Maurice, who came from Italy and does magic tricks when he's bored, and wait with us. If we die, at least we have a witness, I say, and San punches me. 

"So San, Alice, and I tow the set of dishwasher armor back to the apartment complex and San breaks in. It's a little hard for him to climb through the window and I see to much of his anatomy since he's wearing a toga- oh I completely forgot to mention he was wearing a toga. He had to wrap the sheet we used for a picnic cloth around him since we didn't have anything else, otherwise he would have been running around naked because he was dumb and didn't wear anything under his costume, and then we probably would have been arrested for public nudity. Good thing that didn't happen. Where was I... oh! San opens the door from the inside and we put the armor down and we're about to go back up when the door to the rest of the complex busts open. It's the landlord.

'WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!' the guy screams, and San screams back, louder, and I accidentally projectile launch the piece of armor I was holding at him. I think I dishwasher-concussed him with this giant golden wing. He runs at us. Not sure what his game plan was but Alice being Alice proceeded to beat the ever-loving peanut butter outta my parents' landlord. 'My parents are gonna kill me' I cry. In the middle of Alice taking this guy on the express train to Pain Town, Mr. Unibrow shows up like a spectre, breaks up the fight, and arrests the landlord for felony tax evasion.

"Mr. Unibrow's name is Stanley and he's an undercover bounty hunter. It turns out that one of the creepy side rooms in the basement where we were building San's armor had falsified records and stuff in it that we'd never bothered to read. He'd seen us come in and out of the basement periodically and started trailing us. He'd followed us to ComicCon since there would be a ton of people and he thought he'd become another face in the crowd. Keyword here is 'thought'. 

"After we clocked him and started running, he kept trailing us. Turns out we didn't actually shake him when we did the costume change- he saw where we dropped our costumes and stole the keys to get into the building. Was gonna give them to Alice once he was done. He found some other stuff in the office around the time we were breaking back into the building. When the landlord caught us in the basement, he heard the yell and came running. Stanley thanked us and told us to call if we ever need anything. His business card is still taped to our fridge. It's like... a legendary artifact at this point. San is still kind of mad because the Sagittarius cloth is by far the most intricate thing we've ever made and it only has one wing because I panic-threw the other one, but I mean??? What else was I supposed to do! Plus we helped crack a case! That's pretty metal, if you think about it. And uh... yeah.. that was the Dishwasher Incident."

"..."

"Yunho?"

<>_You're right, I should have been sitting for that_<>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys like this narration style? It's my first time trying it.  
Also my proofreading skills jump by 120% after I hit post so if there are any continuity errors, I'll catch them later


End file.
